Since the early foundings, maritime force roles of the French Navy have been defined around the seven seas within missions formulating permanent and non-permanent deterring forces, including aeronaval, maintaining intelligence, protecting populations, preventing crises, intervening wherever necessary to reestablish peace, and deterring by permanent oceanic missions any threats against vital French interests.[3]

The symbol of the French Navy was since its origin a golden anchor, which, beginning in 1830, was interlaced by a sailing rope. This symbol was featured on all naval vessels, arms, and uniforms.[6] Although anchor symbols are still used on uniforms, a new naval logo was introduced in 1990. Authorized by Naval Chief of Staff Bernard Louzeau, the modern design incorporates the tricolour by flanking the bow section of a white warship with two ascending red and blue spray foams, and the inscription "Marine nationale".

The navy became a consistent instrument of national power around the seventeenth century with Richelieu's efforts under Louis XIII, and Colbert's under Louis XIV.[note 1] Under the tutelage of the "Sun King," the French Navy was well-financed and -equipped, managing to score several early victories in the Nine Years' War against the Royal Navy and the Dutch Navy. Financial troubles, however, forced the navy back to port and allowed the English and the Dutch to regain the initiative. Before the Nine Years' War, in the Franco-Dutch War, it managed to score a decisive victory over a combined Spanish-Dutch fleet at the Battle of Palermo.

The French Navy scored various successes, as in the campaigns led in the Atlantic by Picquet de la Motte. In 1766, Bougainville led the first French circumnavigation. During the American Revolutionary War the French Navy played a decisive role in supporting the Americans. In a very impressive effort, the French under de Grasse managed to defeat a British fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781, thus ensuring that the Franco-American ground forces would win the ongoing Battle of Yorktown. French warships participated in the battle by bombarding British ground forces. In India, Suffren waged campaigns against the British (1770–1780), successfully contending for supremacy against Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes.

On 1 June 1794, a fleet under Admiral Villaret Joyeuse fought the Third Battle of Ushant to prevent the Royal Navy from destroying a large convoy, inbound from the United States, that transported grain to a starving France. The convoy escaped unharmed and the sailors were paraded in triumph in the streets of Paris, though the losses sustained during the battle would prove crippling in the following years and ensure the domination of the Royal Navy. In the Mediterranean, the French Navy waged a naval campaign during a 1798 French invasion of Egypt. Evading a pursuing British fleet under the command of Admiral Horatio Nelson, French fleet, consisting of hundreds of ships and carrying 30,000 troops, captured Malta before continuing to Egypt, where the French took Alexandria. French troops subsequently marched inland while the fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay. When Nelson discovered the French fleet's location, he set sail for Aboukir Bay and ordered an immediate attack. In the subsequent Battle of the Nile, the French were defeated, ending French naval power in the Mediterranean and encouraging other nations to join the Second Coalition and go to war with France.

From 1798 to 1800, France and the United States engaged in the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war. Prior to the war, France had been outraged over US trade with Britain and the refusal to repay war debts from the Revolution on grounds that they were owed to the French crown, not Revolutionary France. French ships began seizing American merchant ships trading with Britain, inflicting substantial losses on American shipping. As a result, the United States Navy fought a series of largely successful naval engagements with the French. By the autumn of 1800, the US Navy and Royal Navy had reduced the activities of French privateers and warships.

Throughout the Napoleonic Wars, the French Navy, even with the help of Allied navies, was smaller: In 1812, the Royal Navy, consisting of 600 cruisers and some smaller vessels, was the size of the rest of the world's navies combined.

On 14 June 1830, a large fleet under Duperré, comprising 103 warships and 464 transports, executed the Invasion of Algiers, landing an army at Sidi Ferruch. Sultan-Khalessi, the main fort defending the city, was attacked on 29 June and fell on 4 July. The Bey then started negotiations, leading to his capitulation the next day. This action saw the first practical deployment of military steamers, then used to tow ships of the line to their optimal firing position. The next year, after the Revolution of July, a fleet under Rear Admiral Roussin conducted a show of force against the absolutist Miguel I of Portugal at the Battle of the Tagus, and strong-armed him into signing a humiliating agreement by sailing on the river into his very capital and seizing his fleet. In 1838, the navy conducted another display of force following failed diplomatic demarches, with the Pastry War in Mexico. A small frigate squadron under Baudin bombarded and silenced the defences of Fort San Juan de Ulua at the Battle of Veracruz. This action, where steamers were again used as tugs, marked the first deployment of Paixhans Guns, to great effect which did not go unnoticed by observers from the United Kingdom and the United States.

In 1842, the French Navy took over Tahiti under Admiral Abel Aubert Dupetit Thouars. French activity in those parts would continue throughout the 19th century, as his nephew Abel-Nicolas Bergasse Dupetit Thouars went on pacifying the Marquesas Islands in 1880. In August 1844, a French squadron of French Navy under Joinville attacked the Moroccan city of Mogador, modern Essaouira, and the island facing the city, Mogador island. The campaign was part of the First Franco-Moroccan War.

In a speech in 1852, Napoleon III famously proclaimed that "The Empire means peace" ("L'Empire, c'est la paix"), but actually he was thoroughly determined to follow a strong foreign policy to extend France's power and glory. Around that time, the French Navy was involved in a multitude of actions around the world.

Conquest of Cochinchina: Napoleon III took the first steps to establishing a French colonial influence in Indochina. He approved the launching of the Cochinchina Campaign in 1858 to punish the Vietnamese for their mistreatment of French Catholic missionaries and force the court to accept a French presence in the country. An important factor in his decision was the belief that France risked becoming a second-rate power by not expanding its influence in East Asia. Also, the idea that France had a civilising mission was spreading. This eventually led to a full-out invasion in 1861. By 1862 the war was over and Vietnam conceded three provinces in the south, called by the French Cochin-China, opened three ports to French trade, allowed free passage of French warships to Cambodia (which led to a French protectorate over Cambodia in 1867), allowed freedom of action for French missionaries and gave France a large indemnity for the cost of the war.

The Crimean War: Napoleon III's challenge to Russia's claims to influence in the Ottoman Empire led to France's successful participation in the Crimean War (March 1854 – March 1856). During this war Napoleon successfully established a French alliance with Britain, which continued after the war's close.

Second Opium War: In China, France took part in the Second Opium War along with Britain, and in 1860 French troops entered Beijing. China was forced to concede more trading rights, allow freedom of navigation of the Yangzi river, give full civil rights and freedom of religion to Christians, and give France and Britain a huge indemnity. This combined with the intervention in Vietnam set the stage for further French influence in China leading up to a sphere of influence over parts of Southern China.

Mexico: The French Navy conducted a successful blockade of Mexico in the Pastry War of 1838. It was then heavily involved in French intervention in Mexico (January 1862 – March 1867). Napoleon III, using as a pretext the Mexican Republic's refusal to pay its foreign debts, planned to establish a French sphere of influence in North America by creating a French-backed monarchy in Mexico, a project which was supported by Mexican conservatives tired of the anti-clerical Mexican republic.

Franco-Prussian War: At the outset of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the 470-ship French Navy imposed a blockade of the North German coastline, which the Germans never managed to lift. However, the French ships began suffering coal shortages and lacked the necessary weaponry to deal with the coastal defenses around major enemy ports. A planned invasion of northern Germany was scuttled after the marines and naval infantry tasked with the invasion were dispatched for land combat. After most of the professional army was captured in two major French defeats, naval officers were taken from their ships to officer reserve units. The blockade became less effective as autumn storms took their toll on the French ships still enforcing the blockade. In September 1870, the blockade was abandoned for the winter. Isolated engagements between French and German ships also took place in other theaters.[7][8]

Sino-French War: The projection of French naval power in the Far East reached a peak in the first half of the 1880s. The Far East Squadron (escadre de l'Extrême-Orient), an ad hoc naval grouping of two (subsequently three) naval divisions under the command of Admiral Amédée Courbet created for the duration of the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885), saw considerable action during the war along the China Coast and in the seas around Formosa (Taiwan). Besides almost obliterating China's Fujian Fleet at the Battle of Fuzhou (23 August 1884), the squadron took part in the bombardment and landings at Keelung and Tamsui (5 and 6 August 1884 and 1 to 8 October 1884), the blockade of Formosa (October 1884 to April 1885), the Battle of Shipu (14 February 1885), the so-called Battle of Zhenhai (1 March 1885), the Pescadores Campaign (March 1885) and the 'rice blockade' of the Yangzi River (March to June 1885).

In the 19th century, the navy recovered and became arguably the second finest in the world after the Royal Navy, albeit very much smaller. The French Navy, eager to challenge British naval supremacy, took a leadership role in many areas of warship development, with the introduction of new technologies.

The French Navy also harboured the "Jeune École" school of thoughts that called for small but powerful warships using torpedoes and shell guns to attack fleets of large conventional warships; this led to the mass production of torpedo boats, that proved unreliable in the open sea, and to inconsistent designs in pre-dreadnought battleships as new ideas were very quickly brought up and phased out. Nevertheless, French warship construction proved attractive to the newly industrialising Japan, when the French engineer Émile Bertin was invited to assist in warship design for the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The development of the French Navy slowed down in the beginning of the 20th century as the naval arms race between Germany and Great Britain grew in intensity. As a result, it was outnumbered not only by the Royal Navy but also by the Imperial German Navy and United States Navy, which were also technically superior. It was late to introduce new battleships — dreadnoughts and light cruisers — and it entered World War I with relatively few modern vessels. The Entente Cordiale ended the period in which Britain was seen as a potential enemy, reducing the need for a strong navy. Although there was no formal military alliance, there was a de facto agreement that France would play a leading role in the Mediterranean and Britain would protect the Northern coast of France against a possible German attack. During the war, few warships were built because the main French effort was on land.

The first task of the Mediterranean battle squadrons was to escort transport ships carrying troops from French North Africa to France to join the Battle of the Marne. By the end of August 1914, French battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and submarines were conducting patrols in the Adriatic Sea to prevent any attacks by the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The most important operations of the French Navy were conducted during the Dardanelles Campaign. The French Navy also played an important role in countering Germany's U-boat campaign, with warships patrolling the seas and escorting convoys. In December 1916, French warships arrived off Greece, bombarding Athens and landing sailors, forcing the pro-German Greek government to change its policies. A number of Greek Navy warships were seized and commissioned into the French Navy, and later played an important part in the anti-U-boat campaign. The most significant losses sustained by the French Navy during the war were three pre-dreadnought battleships, one semi-dreadnought, four armored cruisers, one protected cruiser, twelve destroyers, and fourteen submarines.[9]

Listed below is a number of major ships of the French Navy at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and the end of World War I in 1918. The first figure represents the outbreak and the second figure in brackets () represents the end of World War I.[10]

The invention of the seaplane in 1910 with the French Fabre Hydravion led to the earliest development of ships designed to carry airplanes, albeit equipped with floats. In 1911, the first such vessel appeared in the French Navy – Foudre – she was the world's first seaplane carrier. She was commissioned as a seaplane tender, and carried float-equipped planes in hangars on the main deck, from where they were lowered on the sea with a crane. La Foudre was further modified in November 1913 with a 10-metre (33 ft) flat deck to launch her seaplanes.[11] In spite of proposals of the French inventor Clément Ader in 1909 to build a ship with a flat deck to operate aeroplanes at sea, similar to modern aircraft carriers, the French Navy built its first aircraft carrier only in the 1920s and did not go further in developing aircraft carriers before World War II. In 1920, Paul Teste achieved the first carrier landing of the history of the French Navy, aboard Béarn.

After World War I, the French Navy remained the fourth largest in the world, after the British, US and Japanese navies, but the Italian Navy, considered as the main enemy, was almost as large as the French one. This order of fleets, with the French Navy equal to the Italian Navy, was sanctioned by the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. Every naval fleet consisted of a variety of ships of different sizes, and no fleet had enough resources to make every vessel supreme in its class. Nonetheless, different countries strove to excel in particular classes. Between the World Wars, the French fleet was remarkable in its building of small numbers of ships that were "over the top" with relation to their equivalents of other powers. For example, the French chose to build "super-destroyers" which were deemed during the Second World War by the Allies as the equivalent of light cruisers. The Fantasque class of destroyer is still the world's fastest class of destroyer. The submarine Surcouf was the largest and most powerful of its day. The Dunkerque-class battleships, designed specially to fight the German so-called pocket battleships, were, in spite of their relatively small size, very well-balanced designs and precursors of a new fast battleship generation in the world. The Richelieu-class full-size battleships are considered by some experts as the most successful battleships built under displacement limits of Washington Treaty in the world.[12]

The submarine Surcouf

Major ships of the French Navy at the beginning of the German attack in May 1940:[13]

Light cruiser Georges Leygues provided fire support during Normandy and French Riviera landings.

At the outset of the war, the French Navy was involved in a number of operations against the Axis powers, participating in the Battle of the Atlantic, the Allied campaign in Norway, the Dunkirk evacuation and, briefly, the Battle of the Mediterranean. However, Pétain's armistice terms completely changed the situation: the French fleet immediately withdrew from the fight. The British perceived the French fleet under the Vichy government as a potentially lethal threat. This threat would be made all the more real should the French somehow become formal enemies or, more likely, should the Kriegsmarine (German navy) gain control of French ships. It was deemed essential that the French Navy be put out of action. Some vessels were in port in France, while others escaped to Britain or British-controlled Egypt. The British boarded all French ships in their hands, with many sailors re-joining the Allies as part of the Free French Navy (Forces navales françaises libres, FNFL) because of General de Gaulle’s growing influence. Although the boardings were conducted relatively peacefully, there was resistance on Surcouf, then the largest submarine in the world, resulting in a skirmish in which one French and three British naval personnel were killed. However, the most powerful concentrations of the French fleet remained in Mers-el-Kébir and Dakar. A Royal Navy squadron delivered an ultimatum to the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir. The ultimatum demanded that the ships and their crews either join the war effort or sail with reduced crews to a British port, promising that the ships would be repatriated at the end of the war or compensation paid for damages to them, and giving them the option of sailing to a French port in the West Indies where they could be demilitarised or temporarily given to the United States until the end of the war. If the French refused these offers, they had to scuttle their ships or be fired on. On 3 July 1940, the British opened fire after an agreement proved impossible (Operation Catapult). One French battleship was sunk, and two battleships and four destroyers were knocked out. A British submarine also sank an aviso. Six British naval aircraft were shot down. A total of 1,297 French sailors and 2 British airmen were killed.

Though the Free French Naval Forces continued to fight alongside the allies, the rest of the French fleet became hostile as a result of this action. Many senior members of the French Navy considered Britain and France effectively at war. The French Air Force repeatedly bombed Gibraltar, and throughout the war, there were instances where the French Navy came close to engaging the Royal Navy. In November 1942, for example, Admiral Jean de Laborde refused to use the remainder of the French Navy to support Operation Torch, arguing that French ships should instead be attacking the British and Americans.[14] In September, an attempt to take Vichy-held Dakar ended with the Battle of Dakar and a victory for the Vichy forces. In addition, the Allied attack on Dakar led directly to the Vichy bombing of Gibraltar. These actions soured Anglo-French relations, but did not inhibit further defections to the Allies. The subsequent Battle of Gabon, the Syria-Lebanon Campaign, and the Battle of Madagascar ended in Vichy defeats. During Operation Torch in November 1942, the Allies invaded French North Africa, leading to a large naval battle at Casablanca, but the Vichy forces quickly turned sides. In response, the Germans launched Case Anton and occupied the Vichy-held portion of Metropolitan France. The German occupation included the French naval port of Toulon where a large portion (one old battleship, two new battlecruisers, four new heavy cruisers, five new light cruisers and several destroyers and submarines) of the surviving French fleet lay. This was a major German objective and forces under SS command had been detailed to capture them (Operation Lila). This eventually resulted in French sailors sinking their own ships to save them from falling into German hands (scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon). All French capital ships in Toulon were completely destroyed, and few others were taken in reparable condition.[15] A few ships fled Toulon and joined the Allies. Five submarines made way out of the port, of which three succeeded: Casabianca, Glorieux and Marsouin. Following "Torch", remnants of the French Navy moved to the Allies, including ships interned in Egypt, and then there were FNFL warships supporting the Allied landings in Normandy and southern France (Operation Dragoon). A destroyer patrol operated against the Germans in the Adriatic Sea until very late in the war.

The conquest of the European harbours put an end to most of the combat operations of the Navy, which spent the rest of the war clearing mines and repairing port installations. In the Pacific theatre, the French Navy was operative until the Japanese capitulation; Richelieu was present at the Japanese Instrument of Surrender. At the end of the war, the weight of the French navy was 400,000 tonnes (800,000 in May 1940).

The chief of the naval staff is Vice-amiral d’escadre Arnaud de Tarlé,[16] and as of 2014 the Navy has an active strength of 36,776 military personnel and 2,909 civilian staff.[17] The Navy is organised into four main operational branches:

During most of the Cold War, the Navy was organised in two squadrons based in Brest and Toulon, commanded by ALESCLANT (Amiral commandant l'escadre de l'Atlantique) and ALESCMED (Amiral commandant l'escadre de la Méditerranée) respectively. Since the post-Cold War restructuring process named Optimar '95, the two components have been divided into the Naval Action Force (commanded by ALFAN) and the Antisubmarine Group (commanded by ALGASM).[18]

The French Naval Aviation is officially known as the Aéronautique navale and was created on the 19 June 1998 with the merging of Naval patrol aircraft and aircraft carrier squadrons. It has a strength of around 6,800 civilian and military personnel operating from four airbases in Metropolitan France. The Aéronavale is currently in the process of modernisation with a total order of 40 Rafale light fighters on order. Forty have so far been delivered and operate from the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.

Seamen must be at least 17 but no more than 24 years old, with a minimum level of schooling.

Petty Officers

Petty officers must be at least 17 but no more than 24 years old, with at least a high school diploma giving access to university studies. Petty Officer Candidate begin training with five months at the Petty Officer School at Brest.

Contract officers

Contract officers serve on an initial eight-year contract, renewable up to 20 years.

Staff officers have to be 21 to 29 years old, with an honors degree or master's degree in a field corresponding to the military occupational specialty.

Career officers

Less than 22 years old, having passed a classe préparatoire in science. After four years at the École Navale (naval academy) a cadet will graduate as Lieutenant junior grade with an engineering degree.

Less than 25 years old, having an honors degree in science. After three years at the naval academy a cadet will graduate as Lieutenant Jg. with an engineering degree.

Less than 27 years old, having a master's degree. After two years at the naval academy a cadet will graduate as Lieutenant Jg.

The rank insignia of the French Navy are worn on shoulder straps of shirts and white jackets, and on sleeves for navy jackets and mantels. Until 2005, only commissioned officers had an anchor on their insignia, but enlisted personnel are now receiving them as well. Commanding officers have titles of capitaine, but are called commandant (in the army, both capitaine and commandant are ranks, which tends to stir some confusion among the public). The two highest ranks, vice-amiral d'escadre and amiral (admiral), are functions, rather than ranks. They are assumed by officers ranking vice-amiral (vice admiral). The only amiral de la flotte (Admiral of the Fleet) was François Darlan after he was refused the dignity of amiral de France (Admiral of France). Equivalent to the dignity of Marshal of France, the rank of amiral de France remains theoretical in the Fifth Republic; it was last granted in 1869, during the Second Empire, but retained during the Third Republic until the death of its bearer in 1873. The title of amiral de la flotte was created so that Darlan would not have an inferior rank than his counterpart in the British Royal Navy, who had the rank of Admiral of the Fleet.

Unlike in the French army and air force, one does not prepend mon to the name of the rank when addressing an officer (that is, not mon capitaine, but simply capitaine).[20] Addressing a French Navy lieutenant de vaisseau (for instance) with a "mon capitaine" will attract the traditional answer "Dans la Marine il y a Mon Dieu et mon cul, pas mon capitaine!" ("In the Navy there are My God and my arse, no 'my captain'!").

On 9 January 2014 it was announced that the two remaining Batrals in French service would be replaced in 2016/17 by three 1500-tonne (empty) Bâtiments Multimission (B2M) at a cost of ~€100m (US$136m), later increased to four.[25] DCNS has funded the construction of the Gowind-class corvetteL'Adroit and loaned her to the MN for fishery patrols to support an overseas marketing campaign for the design. At Euronaval 2010 DCNS showed a 30,000t concept called the BRAVE-class replenishment and support ship to replace the Durance class,[26] three Flotlog replenishment ships are planned along with four BSAH offshore support vessels. Construction has started on the first of six Barracuda-class nuclear attack submarines; commissioning of Suffren is planned for 2018. The first MM40 Exocet Block 3 missile was test-fired in 2010 to be produced. Naval versions of the SCALP EG land-attack cruise missile are under development, along with a planned Aster Block 1NT with greater capabilities against ballistic missiles.

Winfield, Rif and Roberts, Stephen S., French Warships in the Age of Sail, 1626-1786: Design, Constructions, Careers and Fates (Seaforth Publishing, 2017) ISBN978-1-4738-9351-1; French Warships in the Age of Sail, 1786-1861: Design, Constructions, Careers and Fates (Seaforth Publishing, 2015) ISBN978-1-84832-204-2.

1.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

2.
French Naval Aviation
–
French Naval Aviation is the naval air arm of the French Navy. Born as a fusion of carrier squadrons and naval air force. The headquarters is under command of an admiral in Toulon naval base, the French Naval Aviation has a strength of around 6,800 military and civilian personnel. They operate from four airbases in Metropolitan France and several detachments in foreign countries or French overseas territories

3.
FORFUSCO
–
The Fusiliers Marins and Commandos Marine units are under command of the Force maritime des fusiliers marins et commandos in Lorient. It is headed by an officer with the title of Admiral commandant Les fusiliers marins et commandos. A2, 500-man strong force, the FORFUSCO is the organic force of the French Navy. Groups and companies of marines are dedicated to the protection of sensitive Naval sites, the marines are also an integral part of buildings as domestic service - called bidellerie in navy slang. They also support operations of the Naval Commandos, augment boarding and landing parties, Marine Commandos are trained to targeted actions in places where it is not feasible or appropriate to deploy a larger force. They are primarily used by the French Special Operations Command since 1992 and they have evolved to be broadly comparable to the British SBS

4.
Marseille Marine Fire Battalion
–
The Marseille Naval Fire Battalion, is the fire and rescue service for the city of Marseille. The battalion is a branch of the French Navy, and consists of military personnel, like the Paris Fire Brigade. Nearly half of all candidates fail the battalions rigorous training program, Fire Suppression on land and at sea Emergency Ambulance Utility Safety- Gas leaks, etc. Edouard Daladier, Prime Minister, observes the professionalism of the Toulon marine brigade and he decides to entrust the security of Marseille to a military unit. The Decree-Law of 23 July 1939 is the birth of Marseille Naval Fire Battalion and begins with this and this battalion and the services attached to it are controlled by a senior naval officer. The Marseille Naval Fire Brigade has today a military status and is commanded by a vice-admiral, the BMPM consists of 2,400 personnel and 700 vehicles. In 2009, the BMPM responded to 118,000 operations, in 2011, it carried 111,700 interventions, an average of 285 per day, approximately one every 5 minutes, with more than two thirds regarding the rescue victim. The battalion is commanded by a naval Captain or Rear Admiral as part of the Marseille garrison and he reports to the Minister of Defence, the Minister of the Interior and the Mayor of Marseille. Fire Brigade Sapeurs-Pompiers Official Website in French only

5.
Maritime Gendarmerie
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The Maritime Gendarmerie is a component of the French National Gendarmerie under operational control of the chief of staff of the French Navy. It employs 1,100 personnel and operates around thirty patrol boats, like their land-based colleagues the Gendarmes Maritime are military personnel carry out policing operations in addition to their primary role as a coast guard service. They also carry out provost duties within the French Navy, the uniforms and insignia of the Gendarmerie Maritime are very similar to those of the French Navy, but the ranks used are those of the rest of the Gendarmerie. The mission of the Maritime Gendarmerie is as follows, Maritime safety and of police force duties in the territorial waters and EEZ. Criminal Investigation Department under the authority of public prosecutor, protection of the naval shore establishments. The Maritime Gendarmerie is commanded by a colonel who is assisted by a staff located in Paris

6.
Brest Arsenal
–
The Brest Arsenal is a collection of naval and military buildings located on the banks of the river Penfeld, in Brest, France. It is located at 48°23′12″N 4°29′48″W, 1631-1635 Beginning of the foundations of the port infrastructure. 1674 Appearance of the Powder Magazines, Cordellerie and Military Hospital,1683 Creation of the Troulan dock. 1746 Creation of the three Pontaniou docks near the anchor forges and naval constructions,1752 Construction of the Bagne demolished in 1947. 1807 Construction of the Bâtiment aux Lions to house the arsenals magazines, 1822-1827 Construction of Bassin 6 at the Salou. 1858 Appropriation of the Tourville and Jean Bart quays by the navy, 1864-1865 Construction of Bassin 7 at the Salou. 1865 Closure of the Penfeld port to commercial boats, turning it into a military port, 1889-1896 Construction of the South Jetty. 1895-1900 Construction of the West Jetty, 1899-1902 Transformation of the four Pontaniou docks into 2 large basins, now known as Basin 2 and Basin 3. 1900-1905 South Jetty extended by 750 m.1905 Construction of the Quai dArmement,1910 Installation of the Grande Grue. 1910-1916 Digging of the two docks and of the Laninon dry dock, now known as Basin 8 and Basin 9. 1911 Infilling of the terreplein of Brest Castle,1918 Construction of the Quai des Flottilles. 1931-1933 Closure of the western passage,1938 Work begun on the construction of Bassin 10 de Laninon. 1940 Construction of the Submarine Base during the German occupation - the military became an important German strategic base. 1969-1970 Construction of aircraft-carrier locks 3 and 4, the Penfeld, within the military enclosure, is almost wholly lined with quays, but ships cannot come directly alongside these quays because of heads of rock that are left exposed at low tide. Thats why floating stages are moored fore and aft, mainly on the bank, to make up postes where some “small” ships can come alongside

7.
Military port of Toulon
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The military port of Toulon is the principal base of the French Navy, sited in the city of Toulon. It holds most of Frances force daction navale, comprising the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle as well as its attack submarines. The word rade comes from the old English term Road, a place near shore, not so enclosed as a harbour. The Rade of Toulon is one of the best natural anchorages on the Mediterranean, and it is protected from the sea by the peninsula of Giens and the peninsula of Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, and has been used as a military harbour since the 15th century. The Rade shelters the port of Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer, the port of La Seyne-sur-Mer, as well as the arsenal, or military port of Toulon, the modern history of the port begins when Louis XII built his Tour Royale at Toulon in 1514. A naval arsenal and shipyard was built in 1599, and small sheltered harbour, the shipyard was greatly enlarged by Cardinal Richelieu, who wished to make France into a Mediterranean naval power. In 1697, Vauban built the impressive corderie, a designed to make ropes. The corderie, still standing, is 20 metres wide and 320 metres long, power for the ropemaking was provided by convicts from the adjoining prison, who walked in an enormous treadmill. A triumphal gate was added to the Arsenal in 1738, the Arsenal port was enlarged still further in the 19th century and the 20th century. The construction of the arsenal du Mourillon began at the start of the 18th century, until the 20th century this extension held stores for the wood to build the French Navy. From the late 19th century it was this shipyard that built Frances first ironclad frigates then the worlds first modern submarines, the Arsenal was badly damaged by Allied bombing in World War II, but since has been reconstructed and modernised. It has eleven drydocks for ship repair, the two largest of which are 422 metres by 40 metres, the building of the Corderie can be seen beside the road nearby. Boat tours depart regularly from the waterfront, and allow visitors to have a look at ships of the French fleet. The military base is divided into four zones, each with their own access to the sea. From east to west these are, Castigneau, Malbousquet, Missiessy, Milhaud. The first has two entrances, next to the civilian port - the main gate, adjoining the musée de la marine whose façade. The three other gates are secondary and little used, though still heavily guarded, the arsenal du Mourillon, next to the roadstead, is directly accessible via the north arsenal which housed a submarine base until 1945. The south arsenal is accessed by the slipway of Le Mourillon beside the now-disappeared torpedo factory

8.
Cherbourg
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Cherbourg-Octeville is a city and former commune situated at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It is a subprefecture of its department, and was formed when the commune of Cherbourg absorbed Octeville on 28 February 2000. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, the city is a Maritime prefecture and sub-prefecture of la Manche. Cherbourg-en-Cotentin is protected by Cherbourg Harbour, between La Hague and Val de Saire, and the city has been a position over the centuries. A stopping point for prestigious transatlantic liners in the first half of the 20th century, limited by its geographical isolation from being a great commercial port, it is nonetheless an important shipbuilding centre, and a working-class city with a rural hinterland. Cherbourg-en-Cotentin is located at the tip of the Cotentin Peninsula, in the department of Manche. At the time of the 1999 census the city of Cherbourg had an area of 6.91 square kilometres, the largest city in the Department of Manche, it is the result of the merger of the communes of Cherbourg and Octeville. The amalgamated city today has an area of 14.26 km2. Cherbourg is situated at the mouth of the Divette and at the south of the bay between Cap Lévi to the east and Cap de La Hague to the west, Cherbourg-Octeville is 120 km from the English coast. Cherbourg and Octeville-sur-Cherbourg once belonged to the deanery of La Hague, in 1786, a part of Equeurdreville joined Cherbourg, during the construction of the port, and then in 1802, a portion of Octeville. Thus, Cherbourg-Octeville lies both in La Hague and in the Val de Saire, like all Chantereyne and the area of the Mielles, the Cherbourg territory was reclaimed from the sea. Built at the level of the sea, the town developed at the foot of the Roule mountain and these folds result in layers of sandstone tilted 45° towards the north-east on la Fauconniere and the Montagne du Roule. These two cliffs are due to sea erosion in the Quaternary, the retreat of the sea then gave way to sand dunes and tidal marshes, destroyed by the urbanisation of the 17th and 19th centuries, identical to those of Collignon in Tourlaville. The greenschist, whose colour comes from chlorite and sericite, are used mainly for roofing in Nord-Cotentin, the Armorican sandstone of the Montagne du Roule is used for rubble and rockfill. Most of the quarries, which opened in the metropolitan area for building the harbour wall, are now closed. Cherbourg-en-Cotentin is bordered by the sea, the construction of the port of trade, from 1769, accompanied by the diversion of the Divette and the Trottebec gathered in the canal de retenue, along the Avenue de Paris and Rue du Val-de-Saire. The streams of the Bucaille and the Fay, which watered the Croûte du Homet, Cherbourg-en-Cotentin has a temperate oceanic climate. Its maritime character causes high humidity and a strong sea wind, commonly stormy but also low seasonal variations of temperature and few days of frost

9.
Lorient
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Lorient is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in area of Lorient are attested by the presence of megalithic architecture, ruins of Roman roads confirm Gallo-Roman presence. In 1664, Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded the French East Indies Company, in June 1666, an ordinance of Louis XIV granted lands of Port-Louis to the company, along with Faouédic on the other side of the roadstead. One of its directors, Denis Langlois, bought lands at the confluence of the Scorff and the Blavet rivers, at first, it only served as a subsidiary of Port-Louis, where offices and warehouses were located. The company then erected a chapel, workshops, forges, and offices, the French Royal Navy opened a base there in 1690, under the command of Colbert de Seignelay, who inherited his fathers position as Secretary of State of the Navy. At the same time, privateers from Saint-Malo took shelter there, in 1700, the town grew out of lEnclot following a law forcing people to leave the domain to move to the Faouédic heath. Despite the economic bubble caused by the Company in 1720, the city was growing as it took part in the Atlantic triangular slave trade. From 1720 to 1790,156 ships deported an estimated 43,000 slaves, sales began in 1734, peaking up to 25 million livres tournois. In 1769, the Companys monopoly ended with the scrapping of the company itself, up until Companys closure, the city took advantage of its prosperity. In 1735, new streets were laid down and in 1738, in 1744, the city walls were erected, and proved quickly useful as Lorient was raided in September 1746. Following the demise of the Company, the city lost one-seventh of its population, in 1769, the city evolved into a full-scale naval base for the Royal Navy when the King bought out the Companys infrastructures for 17,500,000 livres tournois. From 1775 on, the American revolutionary war brought a surge in activity, the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic wars put an end to trade for nearly two decades. Maritime activities slowed at the start of the 19th century, the shipyards, during this period, the city was more of an administrative center. The first secondary school opened in 1822, a lazaretto in 1823, the city began to modernize in the second quarter of the century, in 1825, a roofed slipway and a drydock were added to the shipyards. A sardine cannery opened the same year, the first gasworks was built in 1845. In the second half of the 19th century, the engine allowed the ports to strengthen their output. The first locomotive reached the city in 1865, in 1861, the original drydock was enlarged as a second one was dug out. The same year, the ironclad Couronne was built on a design inspired by the Gloire class, though unlike her wooden-hull predecessors

10.
Overseas departments and territories of France
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Overseas France consists of all the French-administered territories outside of the European continent. Their citizens have French nationality and vote for the president of France and they have the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament. From a legal and administrative standpoint, overseas regions are different from overseas collectivities. Overseas regions have exactly the same status as mainland Frances regions, in the French overseas regions, laws cannot be adapted whereas the overseas collectivities are empowered to make their own laws, except in certain areas. The overseas collectivities are governed by elected assemblies and by the French Parliament. Overseas France has an economic zone of 9,821,231 km². Guadeloupe French Guiana Martinique Réunion Mayotte 1976–2003, sui generis overseas territory, 2001–2003, with the designation departmental community, 2003–2011, in the 2009 Mahoran status referendum, Mahorans voted to become an overseas department in 2011, which occurred on March 31,2011. The category of overseas collectivity was created by Frances constitutional reform of March 28,2003, each overseas collectivity has its own statutory laws. French Polynesia In 2004 it was given the designation of overseas country, despite being given the political status of overseas collectivity, Saint Pierre et Miquelon is called collectivité territoriale de Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, literally territorial collectivity. It is still referred to as a territoire. Saint Martin, In 2003, the populations of St. Martin, on February 7,2007, the French Parliament passed a bill granting COM status to both jurisdictions. The new status took effect on February 22,2007 when the law was published in the Journal Officiel and they remain part of the European Union, as stated in the Treaty of Lisbon. It is currently the only overseas territory, according to law 2007-224 of February 21,2007, the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean constitute the 5th district of TAAF. New Caledonia was classified as an overseas territory beginning in 1946, a New Caledonian citizenship was established, and a gradual transfer of power from the French state to New Caledonia itself was begun, to last from 15 to 20 years. Clipperton Island is a 9 km2 coral atoll located 1,280 km south-west of Acapulco, Mexico and it is held as state private property under the direct authority of the French government, and is administered by Frances Overseas Minister. With 2,691,000 inhabitants in 2013, Overseas France account for 4. 1% of the population of the French Republic and they enjoy a corresponding representation in the two chambers of the French Parliament. In the 13th Legislature, Overseas France is represented by 27 députés in the French National Assembly,2004, Official website Overseas France at DMOZ

11.
Fort Saint Louis (Martinique)
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Fort Saint Louis is a seaside fortress in Fort-de-France, Martinique. The present-day fort has evolved from earlier strongholds that were erected on the site as early as 1638, the modern-day Fort Saint Louis is both an active naval base and a listed historic site of France. There are daily tours of the fort, though the portion that is still a base is off-limits. Fort Saint Louis is under command of the capitaine de vaisseau in charge of the navy, the forces based here include the BATRAL Francis Garnier, the P400 class patrol vessel Fougueuse, and the frigate Ventôse. Fort Saint Louis has a view of the anchorage of Fort-de-France. It stands on a peninsula at the edge of Fort-de-France Bay. The fort has been home to generations of a small. In 1635, during the reign of Louis XIII, Pierre Belain dEsnambuc and the Compagnie des Îles de lAmérique established a French colony in Martinique, which the company governed until 1650. In 1638, Jacques Dyel du Parquet, nephew of Pierre Belain dEsnambuc and first governor of Martinique, the fort was soon destroyed, and rebuilt in 1669, when Louis XIV appointed Jean-Charles de Baas-Castelmore, the Marquis of Baas, as governor general. Under his orders and those of his successors, particularly the Count of Blénac, the attack lasted three days before the Dutch gave up. After the initial Dutch attack, Governor Sainte Marthe called a war council, sieur de Gemozat, the Lieutenant du Roi, was the only member to absolutely reject the option to surrender. Today, the actions of Aycard, de Baas, de Gemozat, in 1677, Charles de La Roche-Courbon, comte de Blénac, became Governor General, holding the post until 1683. He was responsible for the 10-year effort that resulted in the building of a 487-meter wall around the peninsula, comte de Blénac served as Governor General again from June 1684 to February 1691, and again from 24 Nov 1691 until his death in 1696. His successor was the Marquis dAmblimont, who had played an important role in the repulse of the Dutch, in January 1759, the fort repulsed an attack by the British sailor, Admiral Rodney. A second British attack three years later was more successful, the British forces occupied two hills overlooking Fort Saint Louis, Morne Garnier and Morne Tartenson. Fort Saint Louis, although strong on the side, was ill-prepared to resist bombardment from above. The British were therefore able to force its surrender, during this and subsequent periods of British occupation, the fort bore the name Fort Edward. On 11 February 1763, after the Treaty of Paris returned Martinique to French control, the British left, the French proceeded to construct a second fort, Fort Bourbon, on Morne Garnier to protect Fort Saint Louis

12.
Port des Galets
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Le Port is a commune in the French overseas department of Réunion. It is located at the extreme northwest corner of the island of Réunion, Le Port had a population of 36,952. It is the harbour city of the island. Le Port is twinned with, Durban, South Africa Toamasina, Madagascar Port Louis, Mauritius Quelimane, also, the newspaper of the party, Temoignages, has headquarters in Le Port. Communes of the Réunion department INSEE Notes Official website Port Louis, Port Réunion, Port Toamasina

13.
Dzaoudzi
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Dzaoudzi is a commune in the French overseas department of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean. The commune of Dzaoudzi, made up of the towns of Dzaoudzi. It was previously the capital of Mayotte, but the capital was relocated in 1977 to Mamoudzou, on the island of Grande-Terre, the Foreign Legion Detachment in Mayotte has been based in Dzaoudzi since 1973. The town of Dzaoudzi is located on a rocky outcropping which was once a separate islet and it is now linked to Pamanzi Island and the rest of Dzaoudzi Commune by the Boulevard des Crabes, a road constructed atop an artificial dike. The commune is home to 14,311 people, the majority of live in the town of Labattoir. The international airport for Mayotte is located on Pamanzi Island in the commune of Pamandzi

14.
Dakar
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Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city in the Old World as well as on the African mainland. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, the area around Dakar was settled in the 15th century. The Portuguese established a presence on the island of Gorée off the coast of Cap-Vert, France took over the island in 1677. Following the abolition of the trade and French annexation of the mainland area in the 19th century, Dakar grew into a major regional port. In 1902, Dakar replaced Saint-Louis as the capital of French West Africa, from 1959 to 1960, Dakar was the capital of the short-lived Mali Federation. In 1960, it became the capital of the independent Republic of Senegal, Dakar is home to multiple national and regional banks as well as numerous international organizations. From 1978 to 2007, it was also the finishing point of the Dakar Rally. The Cap-Vert peninsula was settled no later than the 15th century, by the Lebou people, the original villages, Ouakam, Ngor, Yoff and Hann, still constitute distinctively Lebou neighborhoods of the city today. In 1444, the Portuguese reached the Bay of Dakar, initially as slave-raiders, peaceful contact was finally opened in 1456 by Diogo Gomes, and the bay was subsequently referred to as the Angra de Bezeguiche. The Portuguese eventually founded a settlement on the island of Gorée, the mainland of Cap-Vert, however, was under control of the Jolof Empire, as part of the western province of Cayor which seceded from Jolof in its own right in 1549. A new Lebou village, called Ndakaaru, was established directly across from Gorée in the 17th century to service the European trading factory with food, Gorée was captured by the United Netherlands in 1588, which gave it its present name. The island was to switch hands between the Portuguese and Dutch several more times before falling to the English under Admiral Robert Holmes on January 23,1664, and finally to the French in 1677. Though under continuous French administration since, métis families, descended from Dutch and French traders and African wives, the infamous House of Slaves was built at Gorée in 1776. In 1795 the Lebou of Cape Verde revolted against Cayor rule, a new theocratic state, subsequently called the Lebou Republic by the French, was established under the leadership of the Diop, a Muslim clerical family originally from Koki in Cayor. The capital of the republic was established at Ndakaaru, in 1857 the French established a military post at Ndakaaru and annexed the Lebou Republic, though its institutions continued to function nominally. The Serigne of Ndakaaru is still recognized as the political authority of the Lebou by the Senegalese State today. The slave trade was abolished by France in February 1794, however, Napoleon reinstated it in May 1802, then finally abolished it permanently in March 1815

15.
Djibouti
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Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, the remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east. Djibouti occupies an area of just 23,200 km2. In antiquity, the territory was part of the Land of Punt and then the Sabean, nearby Zeila was the seat of the medieval Adal and Ifat Sultanates. It was subsequently renamed to the French Territory of the Afars, a decade later, the Djiboutian people voted for independence. This officially marked the establishment of the Republic of Djibouti, named after its capital city, Djibouti joined the United Nations the same year, on 20 September 1977. In the early 1990s, tensions over government representation led to armed conflict, Djibouti is a multi-ethnic nation with a population of over 846,687 inhabitants. Arabic and French are the two official languages. About 94% of residents adhere to Islam, a religion that has been predominant in the region for more than 1,000 years, the Somali Issa and Afar make up the two largest ethnic groups. Both speak Afroasiatic languages, which serve as recognized national languages, Djibouti is strategically located near some of the worlds busiest shipping lanes, controlling access to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. It serves as a key refueling and transshipment center, and is the principal port for imports from. A burgeoning commercial hub, the nation is the site of various military bases. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development regional body also has its headquarters in Djibouti City, the Djibouti area has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic. According to linguists, the first Afroasiatic-speaking populations arrived in the region during this period from the familys proposed urheimat in the Nile Valley, other scholars propose that the Afroasiatic family developed in situ in the Horn, with its speakers subsequently dispersing from there. Pottery predating the mid-2nd millennium has been found at Asa Koma, the sites ware is characterized by punctate and incision geometric designs, which bear a similarity to the Sabir culture phase 1 ceramics from Malayba in Southern Arabia. Long-horned humpless cattle bones have likewise been discovered at Asa Koma, rock art of what appear to be antelopes and a giraffe are also found at Dorra and Balho. Handoga, dated to the fourth millennium BP, has in turn yielded obsidian microliths, additionally, between Djibouti City and Loyada are a number of anthropomorphic and phallic stelae. The structures are associated with graves of rectangular shape that are flanked by vertical slabs, the Djibouti-Loyada stelae are of uncertain age, and some of them are adorned with a T-shaped symbol

16.
Abu Dhabi
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Abu Dhabi is the capital and the second most populous city of the United Arab Emirates, and also capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the UAEs seven emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the western coast. The city proper had a population of 1.5 million in 2014, Abu Dhabi houses federal government offices, is the seat of the United Arab Emirates Government, home to the Abu Dhabi Emiri Family and the President of the UAE, who is from this family. Abu Dhabis rapid development and urbanisation, coupled with the high average income of its population, has transformed the city into a large. Today the city is the center of political and industrial activities. Abu Dhabi accounts for about two-thirds of the roughly $400-billion United Arab Emirates economy, Abu Dhabi is the fourth most expensive city for expatriate employees in the region, and in 2014 was the 68th most expensive big city in the world. Abu Dhabi is full of evidence that points to civilizations, such as the Umm an-Nar Culture. Settlements were also found farther outside the city of Abu Dhabi. There is evidence of civilizations around the mountain of Hafeet and this location is very strategic because it is the UAE’s second tallest mountain, so it would have great visibility. It also contains a lot of moisture in its springs and lakes, origin of the name Abu Dhabi The origin of the name Abu Dhabi is uncertain. Meaning Father of the Gazelle, when translated from Arabic. According to Bilal al-Budoor, assistant under-secretary for Cultural Affairs at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development, The area had a lot of dhibaa, an old story tells about a man who used to chase deer and was named the father of the animal. Abu Dhabis original name was Milh salt, possibly referring to the salty water of the Persian Gulf, some Bedouins called the city Umm Dhabi, while British records refer to the place as Abu Dhabi. According to some accounts, the name Abu Dhabi was first used more than 300 years ago. The first word of Abu Dhabi is pronounced Bu by inhabitants on the western coast. In the eastern part of the city, the pronunciation is Abu, origins of the Al Nahyan family The Bani Yas bedouin were originally centered on the Liwa Oasis. This tribe was the most significant in the area, having over 20 subsections, in 1793, the Al Bu Falah subsection migrated to the island of Abu Dhabi on the coast of the Persian Gulf due to the discovery of fresh water there. One family within this section was the Al Nahyan family and this family makes up the rulers of Abu Dhabi today

17.
Current French Navy ships
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This is a list of active French Navy ships as of April 2016. The French Navy consists of the 86 vessel strong Force daction navale, primary assets include 1 aircraft carrier,3 amphibious assault ships,4 air-defence destroyers,8 anti-submarine destroyers,5 general-purpose frigates, and 6 surveillance frigates. The submarine force consists of 6 attack submarines and 4 ballistic missile submarines, to support the Force dAction Navale at sea, the French Navy uses 3 replenishment oilers,18 mine countermeasure vessels and 6 support ships. In addition to the units, it operates 21 patrol ships,5 survey vessels,4 experimentation ships,8 ocean tugboats and 14 training vessels. The French Navy does not use the term destroyer in vessel names, instead, surface combatants of the first rank are named frigates, though they are registered as destroyers. These vessels operate in conjunction with the Maritime Gendarmerie,17 x RPC12 harbour and coastal tugboats For a complete list of Bâtiments de soutien see Bâtiments de soutien at the official Marine Nationale website

18.
Sino-French War
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The Sino-French War, also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 through April 1885, to decide whether France would supplant Chinas control of Tonkin. Although the Chinese armies performed better than in other nineteenth-century wars and the war ended with French defeat on land, France began its colonial campaign in 1858, annexing several southern provinces in 1862 to form the colony of Cochinchina. In 1873, a small French force commanded by Lieutenant de Vaisseau Francis Garnier, exceeding his instructions, following a series of French victories against the Vietnamese, the Vietnamese government called on Liu Yongfus Black Flags, who defeated Garniers force beneath the walls of Hanoi. Garnier was killed in battle, and the French government later disavowed his expedition. In 1881, French Commandant Henri Rivière was sent with a military force to Hanoi to investigate Vietnamese complaints about the activities of French merchants. In defiance of the instructions of his superiors, Rivière stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882, although Rivière subsequently returned the citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force provoked alarm both in Vietnam and in China. The Vietnamese also bid for Chinese support, Vietnam had long been a vassal state of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags, and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin. The Qing court also sent a signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In the summer of 1882, troops of the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi armies crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lạng Sơn, Bắc Ninh, Hung Hoa, neither of the parties to these negotiations consulted the Vietnamese. Rivière, disgusted at the cut by Bourée, decided early in 1883 to force the issue. He had recently sent a battalion of marine infantry from France. On 27 March 1883, to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to the coast, Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Định with a force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command. During his absence at Nam Định, the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi, Rivière jubilantly reacted, This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question. He had expected to be cashiered for his Capture of Nam Định, there had recently been a change of government in France, and the new administration of Jules Ferry strongly favoured colonial expansion. It therefore decided to back Rivière, Ferry and Foreign Minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour denounced Bourées agreement with Li Hongzhang and recalled the hapless French minister. They also made it clear to the Chinese that they were determined to place Tonkin under French protection and this resulted in a year of Liu Yongfus forces fighting an unconventional war. On 10 May 1883 Liu Yongfu challenged the French to battle in a taunting message widely placarded on the walls of Hanoi, on 19 May Rivière confronted the Black Flags in the Battle of Paper Bridge, and the French suffered a disastrous defeat. Rivières small force attacked a strong Black Flag defensive position near the village of Cầu Giấy, after initial successes the French were eventually enveloped on both wings, only with difficulty could they regroup and fall back to Hanoi

19.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth

20.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

21.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan

22.
Indochina War
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The First Indochina War began in French Indochina on 19 December 1946 and lasted until 1 August 1954. Fighting between French forces and their Viet Minh opponents in the South dated from September 1945, Japanese forces located south of that line surrendered to him and those to the north surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In September 1945, Chinese forces entered Tonkin and a small British task force landed at Saigon, the Chinese accepted the Vietnamese government under Ho Chi Minh, then in power in Hanoi. The British refused to do likewise in Saigon, and deferred to the French there from the outset, on V-J Day, September 2, Ho Chi Minh had proclaimed in Hanoi the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. On 23 September 1945, with the knowledge of the British Commander in Saigon, French forces overthrew the local DRV government, guerrilla warfare began around Saigon immediately. The first few years of the war involved a low-level rural insurgency against the French, French Union forces included colonial troops from the whole former empire, French professional troops and units of the French Foreign Legion. The use of metropolitan recruits was forbidden by the government to prevent the war from becoming more unpopular at home. It was called the dirty war by leftists in France, the strategy of pushing the Viet Minh into attacking well-defended bases in remote parts of the country at the end of their logistical trails was validated at the Battle of Nà Sản. However, this base was relatively weak because of a lack of concrete and this combination proved fatal for this base defenses, culminating in a decisive French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The south continued under Emperor Bảo Đại, a year later, Bảo Đại would be deposed by his prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm, creating the Republic of Vietnam. Soon an insurgency, backed by the North, developed against Diệms government, the conflict gradually escalated into the Vietnam War. Vietnam was absorbed into French Indochina in stages between 1858 and 1887, nationalism grew until World War II provided a break in French control. Early Vietnamese resistance centered on the intellectual Phan Bội Châu, Châu looked to Japan, which had modernized and was one of the few Asian nations to successfully resist European colonization. With Prince Cường Để, Châu started two organizations in Japan, the Duy Tân hội and Vietnam Cong Hien Hoi, due to French pressure, Japan deported Phan Bội Châu to China. Witnessing Sun Yat-sens 1911 nationalist revolution, Châu was inspired to commence the Viet Nam Quang Phục Hội movement in Guangzhou, from 1914 to 1917, he was imprisoned by Yuan Shikais counterrevolutionary government. In 1925, he was captured by French agents in Shanghai, due to his popularity, Châu was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his death in 1940. In September 1940, shortly after Phan Bội Châus death, Japan launched its invasion of French Indochina, keeping the French colonial administration, the Japanese ruled from behind the scenes in a parallel of Vichy France. As far as Vietnamese nationalists were concerned, this was a double-puppet government, Emperor Bảo Đại collaborated with the Japanese, just as he had with the French, ensuring his lifestyle could continue

23.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991

24.
Kosovo War
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The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 5 March 1998 until 11 June 1999. After attempts at a diplomatic solution failed, NATO intervened, justifying the campaign in Kosovo as a humanitarian war and this precipitated a mass expulsion of Kosovar Albanians as the Yugoslav forces continued to fight during the aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia. The war ended with the Kumanovo Treaty, with Yugoslav and Serb forces agreeing to withdraw from Kosovo to make way for an international presence, Kosovos borders did not precisely match the areas of ethnic Albanian settlement in Yugoslavia. Kosovos formal autonomy, established under the 1945 Yugoslav constitution, initially meant relatively little in practice, the secret police cracked down hard on nationalists. In 1956 a number of Albanians went on trial in Kosovo on charges of espionage, the threat of separatism was in fact minimal, as the few underground groups aiming for union with Albania had little political significance. Demaci himself was imprisoned in 1964 along with many of his followers, Yugoslavia underwent a period of economic and political crisis in 1969, as a massive government program of economic reform widened the gap between the rich north and poor south of the country. Student demonstrations and riots in Belgrade in June 1968 spread to Kosovo in November of the same year, however, Tito conceded some of the students demands—in particular, representative powers for Albanians in both the Serbian and Yugoslav state bodies and better recognition of the Albanian language. The University of Pristina was established as an independent institution in 1970, the lack of Albanian-language educational materials in Yugoslavia hampered the Albanisation of education in Kosovo, so an agreement was struck with Albania itself to supply textbooks. In 1974 Kosovos political status improved further when a new Yugoslav constitution granted a set of political rights. Along with Vojvodina, Kosovo was declared a province and gained many of the powers of a fully-fledged republic, power was still exercised by the Communist Party, but it was now devolved mainly to ethnic Albanian communists. Titos death on 4 May 1980 ushered in a period of political instability, worsened by growing economic crisis. The disturbances were quelled by the Presidency of Yugoslavia proclaiming a state of emergency, sending in riot police and the army, hard-liners instituted a fierce crackdown on nationalism of all kinds, Albanian and Serbian alike. Kosovo endured a heavy secret-police presence throughout most of the 1980s that ruthlessly suppressed any unauthorised nationalist manifestations, according to a report quoted by Mark Thompson, as many as 580,000 inhabitants of Kosovo were arrested, interrogated, interned or reprimanded. Thousands of these lost their jobs or were expelled from their educational establishments, during this time tension between the Albanian and Serbian communities continued to escalate. Such concerns did attract interest in Belgrade, stories appeared from time to time in the Belgrade media claiming that Serbs and Montenegrins were being persecuted. There was a perception among Serbian nationalists that Serbs were being driven out of Kosovo, in addition to all this, the worsening state of Kosovos economy made the province a poor choice for Serbs seeking work. Albanians, as well as Serbs, tended to favor their compatriots when hiring new employees, Kosovo was the poorest entity of Yugoslavia, the average per capita income was $795, compared with the national average of $2,635. 33 nationalist formations were dismantled by Yugoslav police, who sentenced some 280 people and seized arms caches, in Kosovo an increasingly poisonous atmosphere between Serbs and Albanians led to wild rumors being spread and otherwise trivial incidents being blown out of proportion

25.
War on Terror
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The War on Terror, also known as the Global War on Terrorism, is a metaphor of war referring to the international military campaign that started after the September 11th attacks on the United States. U. S. President George W. Bush first used the term War on Terror on 20 September 2001 and it was originally used with a particular focus on countries associated with Islamic terrorist organizations including al-Qaeda and like-minded organizations. In 2013, President Barack Obama announced that the United States was no longer pursuing a War on Terror, in 2017 Donald Trump assumed presidency of the United States and vowed that the fight against ISIL is his number one priority. Trump has also agreed to work together and carry joint operations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the war on terror. The phrase War on Terror has been used to refer to the ongoing military campaign led by the U. S. The conflict has also referred to by names other than the War on Terror. Author Shane Harris asserts this was a reaction to the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, Bush later apologized for this remark due to the negative connotations the term crusade has to people, e. g. of the Muslim faith. The word crusade was not used again, on 20 September 2001, during a televised address to a joint session of Congress, Bush stated that ur war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, in April 2007, the British government announced publicly that it was abandoning the use of the phrase War on Terror as they found it to be less than helpful. This was explained more recently by Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, in her 2011 Reith lecture, the former head of MI5 said that the 9/11 attacks were a crime, not an act of war. So I never felt it helpful to refer to a war on terror. U. S. President Barack Obama has rarely used the term, in March 2009 the Defense Department officially changed the name of operations from Global War on Terror to Overseas Contingency Operation. In March 2009, the Obama administration requested that Pentagon staff members avoid the use of the term, basic objectives of the Bush administration war on terror, such as targeting al Qaeda and building international counterterrorism alliances, remain in place. Because the actions involved in the war on terrorism are diffuse, jackson cites among many examples a statement by John Ashcroft that the attacks of September 11 drew a bright line of demarcation between the civil and the savage. Administration officials also described terrorists as hateful, treacherous, barbarous, mad, twisted, perverted, without faith, parasitical, inhuman, Americans, in contrast, were described as brave, loving, generous, strong, resourceful, heroic, and respectful of human rights. The origins of al-Qaeda can be traced to the Soviet war in Afghanistan, a small number of Afghan Arab volunteers joined the fight against the Soviets, including Osama bin Laden, but there is no evidence they received any external assistance. On 7 August 1998, al-Qaeda struck the U. S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people, the plant produced much of the regions antimalarial drugs and around 50% of Sudans pharmaceutical needs. The strikes failed to kill any leaders of WIFJAJC or the Taliban, next came the 2000 millennium attack plots, which included an attempted bombing of Los Angeles International Airport

26.
Ranks in the French Navy
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The rank insignia of the French Navy are worn on shoulder straps of shirts and white jackets, and on sleeves for navy jackets and mantels. Until 2005, only commissioned officers had an anchor on their insignia, the two highest ranks, vice-amiral descadre and amiral, are functions, rather than ranks. They are assumed by officers ranking vice-amiral, the only amiral de la flotte was François Darlan after he was refused the dignity of Admiral of France. The title of de la flotte was created so that Darlan would not have an inferior rank to that of his counterpart in the British Royal Navy. Personnel with a particular attribution may wear distinctive features on their rank insignia, for instance, medical officers bear two red stripes on their insignia. Similarly, the Ingénieur des études et techniques de travaux maritimes wear pearl-grey stripes, peintres de la Marine, who are not employed by the Navy but have a special status, wear a uniform and officier straps with rank insignia replaced with the words Peintre officiel

27.
Attack aircraft
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This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft, Strike fighters, which have effectively replaced the fighter-bomber and light bomber concepts, also differ little from the broad concept of an attack aircraft. The dedicated attack aircraft as a separate class existed primarily during, the precise implementation varied from country to country, and was handled by a wide variety of designs. In the US and UK, attack aircraft were based on light bombers, sometimes carrying heavier forward-firing weapons like the B-25G. In Germany and USSR, where they were known as schlachtflugzeug or sturmovik, in the late-war era, the fighter-bomber began to take over many attack roles, a change that continued in the post-war era. Jet powered examples were relatively rare, but not unknown, like the Blackburn Buccaneer, the US Navy continued to introduce new aircraft in their A-series, but these were purely light and medium bombers. Since the 1960s, only two dedicated attack aircraft designs have been introduced, the US A-10 Thunderbolt II and Soviet Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot. One oddity belonging to class is the AC-130, which features as its primary armament high-caliber artillery guns adapted for aircraft use. A variety of attack aircraft exist, usually based on adapted trainers or other light fixed-wing aircraft. Presently, U. S. attack aircraft are identified by the prefix A-, as in A-6 Intruder, however, until the end of World War II the A- designation was shared between attack planes and light bombers for the Army aircraft. The US Navy used a separate system and at the time preferred to call similar aircraft scout bombers or torpedo bombers. For example, Douglas SBD Dauntless scout bomber was designated A-24 when used by the USAAF. It was not until 1946, when the US Navy and US Marine Corps started using the attack designation, as with many aircraft classifications, the definition of attack aircraft is somewhat vague and has tended to change over time. Current U. S. military doctrine defines it as an aircraft which most likely performs an attack mission, Attack mission means, in turn, specifically tactical air-to-ground action—in other words, neither air-to-air action nor strategic bombing is considered an attack mission. In United States Navy vocabulary, the designation for the same activity is a strike mission. Attack missions are divided into two categories, air interdiction and close air support. In the last several decades, the rise of the ubiquitous multi-role fighter has created confusion about the difference between attack and fighter aircraft. According to the current U. S. designation system, an aircraft is designed primarily for air-to-surface

28.
Rafale
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The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. The Rafale is referred to as an aircraft by Dassault. In the late 1970s, the French Air Force and Navy were seeking to replace, in order to reduce development costs and boost prospective sales, France entered into an arrangement with four other European nations to produce an agile multi-purpose fighter. Subsequent disagreements over workshare and differing requirements led to Frances pursuit of its own development program, Dassault built a technology demonstrator which first flew in July 1986 as part of an eight-year flight-test programme, paving the way for the go-ahead of the project. Originally scheduled to service in 1996, the Rafale suffered significant delays due to post-Cold War budget cuts. The aircraft is available in three variants, Rafale C single-seat land-based version, Rafale B twin-seat land-based version. Introduced in 2001, the Rafale is being produced for both the French Air Force and for carrier-based operations in the French Navy. The Rafale has been marketed for export to countries, and it has been selected for purchase by the Indian Air Force, the Egyptian Air Force. The Rafale has been used in combat over Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq, several upgrades to the weapons and avionics of the Rafale are planned to be introduced by 2018. In the mid-1970s, both the French Air Force and Navy had requirements for a new generation of fighters to replace those in or about to enter service, because their requirements were similar, and to reduce cost, both departments issued a common request for proposal. In 1975, the French Ministry of Aviation initiated studies for a new aircraft to complement the upcoming and smaller Dassault Mirage 2000, in 1979, the French company Dassault joined the MBB/BAe European Collaborative Fighter project which was renamed the European Combat Aircraft. A number of factors led to the split between France and the other four countries. Around 1984 France reiterated its requirement for a version and demanded a leading role. It also insisted on a fighter that was lighter than the design favoured by the other four nations. West Germany, the UK and Italy opted out and established a new EFA programme. In Turin on 2 August 1985, West Germany, the UK and Italy agreed to go ahead with the Eurofighter, despite pressure from France, Spain rejoined the Eurofighter project in early September 1985. The four-nation project eventually resulted in the development of the Eurofighter Typhoon, in France, the government proceeded with its own programme. The French Ministry of Defence required an aircraft capable of air-to-air and air-to-ground, all-day, during October–December 1978, prior to Frances joining of the ECA, Dassault received contracts for the development of project ACT92

29.
Electronic warfare
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Electronic warfare is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack of an enemy, or impede enemy assaults via the spectrum. The purpose of warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly unimpeded access to. EW can be applied from air, sea, land, and space by manned and unmanned systems, Military operations are executed in an information environment increasingly complicated by the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum portion of the environment is referred to as the electromagnetic environment. Within the information operations construct, EW is an element of warfare, more specifically. NATO has a different and arguably more encompassing and comprehensive approach to EW, a Military Committee conceptual document from 2007 recognised the EME as an operational manoeuvre space and warfighting environment/domain. In NATO, EW is considered to be warfare in the EME, NATO has adopted simplified language which parallel those used in the other warfighting environments like maritime, land and air/space. For example, Electronic Attack is offensive use of EM energy, ED is electronic defence and ES electronic surveillance. The use of the traditional NATO EW measures has been retained as they contribute to and support EA, ED, besides EW, other EM operations include ISTAR and SIGINT. Subsequently NATO has issued EW Policy and Doctrine and is addressing the other NATO defence lines of development, Electronic warfare is any military action involving the use of the EM spectrum to include directed energy to control the EM spectrum or to attack an enemy. This is not limited to radio or radar frequencies but includes IR, visible, ultraviolet and this includes self-protection, standoff, and escort jamming, and antiradiation attacks. EW is a tool that enhances many air and space functions at multiple levels of conflict. The purpose of EW is to deny the opponent an advantage in the EM spectrum, EW can be applied from air, sea, land, and space by manned and unmanned systems. EW is employed to support operations involving various levels of detection, denial, deception, disruption, degradation, protection. Expanding reliance on the EM spectrum increases both the potential and the challenges of EW in information operations, all of the core, supporting, and related information operations capabilities either directly use EW or indirectly benefit from EW. The principal EW activities have developed over time to exploit the opportunities and vulnerabilities that are inherent in the physics of EM energy. Electronic warfare includes three major subdivisions, electronic attack, electronic protection, and electronic warfare support, in the case of EM energy, this action is referred to as jamming and can be performed on communications systems or radar systems. Jamming is not part of EP, it is an EA measure, the use of flare rejection logic on an Infrared homing missile to counter an adversary’s use of flares is EP

30.
E-2 Hawkeye
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The Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning aircraft. The fourth major version of the Hawkeye is the E-2D, which first flew in 2007, the E-2 was the first aircraft designed specifically for its role, as opposed to a modification of an existing airframe, such as the Boeing E-3 Sentry. Variants of the Hawkeye have been in production since 1960. The E-2 also received the nickname Super Fudd because it replaced the E-1 Tracer Willy Fudd, in recent decades, the E-2 has been commonly referred to as the Hummer because of the distinctive sounds of its turboprop engines, quite unlike that of turbojet and turbofan jet engines. In addition to U. S. Navy service, smaller numbers of E-2s have been sold to the forces of Egypt, France, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Singapore. Continual improvements in airborne radars through 1956 led to the construction of AEW airplanes by several different countries, the functions of command and control and sea & air surveillance were also added. The first carrier-based aircraft to perform missions for the U. S. Its design, initially designated W2F-1, but later redesignated the E-2A Hawkeye, was the first carrier plane that had been designed from its wheels up as an AEW and command and control airplane. These ‘smaller’ carriers were built during World War II and later modified to allow them to operate jet aircraft, consequently, various height, weight and length restrictions had to be factored into the E-2A design, resulting in some handling characteristics which were less than ideal. The E-2A actually never operated from the modified Essex class carriers, the first prototype, acting as an aerodynamic testbed only, flew on 21 October 1960. The first fully equipped aircraft followed it on 19 April 1961, by 1965 the major development problems delaying the E-2A Hawkeye got so bad that the aircraft was actually cancelled after 59 aircraft had already been built. Particular difficulties were being experienced due to cooling in the closely packed avionics compartment. Early computer and complex avionics systems generated considerable heat, without proper ventilation this would lead to system failures and these failures continued long after the aircraft entered service and at one point reliability was so bad the entire fleet of aircraft was grounded. The airframe was also prone to corrosion, a problem in a carrier based aircraft. The unreliable rotary drum computer was replaced by a Litton L-304 digital computer, in total,49 of the 59 E-2As were upgraded to E-2B standard. These aircraft replaced the E-1B Tracers in the various US Navy AEW squadrons, although the upgraded E-2B was a vast improvement on the unreliable E-2A, it was an interim measure. The US Navy knew the design had much greater capability and had yet to achieve the performance, in April 1968 a reliability improvement program was instigated. In addition, now that the capabilities of the aircraft were starting to be realized, improvements in the new and upgraded aircraft were concentrated in the radar and computer performance

31.
Fighter aircraft
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A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dual-purpose fighter-bombers, often aircraft that do not fulfill the standard definition are called fighters. This may be for political or national security reasons, for advertising purposes, a fighters main purpose is to establish air superiority over a battlefield. Since World War I, achieving and maintaining air superiority has been considered essential for victory in conventional warfare, the word fighter did not become the official English-language term for such aircraft until after World War I. In the British Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force these aircraft were referred to as scouts into the early 1920s, the U. S. Army called their fighters pursuit aircraft from 1916 until the late 1940s. In most languages a fighter aircraft is known as a hunter, exceptions include Russian, where a fighter is an истребитель, meaning exterminator, and Hebrew where it is matose krav. As a part of nomenclature, a letter is often assigned to various types of aircraft to indicate their use. In Russia I was used, while the French continue to use C and this has always been the case, for instance the Sopwith Camel and other fighting scouts of World War I performed a great deal of ground-attack work. Several aircraft, such as the F-111 and F-117, have received fighter designations but had no fighter capability due to political or other reasons, the F-111B variant was originally intended for a fighter role with the U. S. Navy, but it was cancelled. This blurring follows the use of fighters from their earliest days for attack or strike operations against ground targets by means of strafing or dropping small bombs, versatile multirole fighter-bombers such as the F/A-18 Hornet are a less expensive option than having a range of specialized aircraft types. An interceptor is generally an aircraft intended to target bombers and so often trades maneuverability for climb rate, fighters were developed in World War I to deny enemy aircraft and dirigibles the ability to gather information by reconnaissance. Early fighters were very small and lightly armed by later standards, and most were built with a wooden frame, covered with fabric. As control of the airspace over armies became increasingly important all of the major powers developed fighters to support their military operations, between the wars, wood was largely replaced by steel tubing, then aluminium tubing, and finally aluminium stressed skin structures began to predominate. By World War II, most fighters were all-metal monoplanes armed with batteries of guns or cannons. By the end of the war, turbojet engines were replacing piston engines as the means of propulsion, further increasing aircraft speed. Since the weight of the engine was so less than on piston engined fighters. This in turn required the development of ejection seats so the pilot could escape, in the 1950s, radar was fitted to day fighters, since pilots could no longer see far enough ahead to prepare for any opposition. Since then, radar capabilities have grown enormously and are now the method of target acquisition

32.
Helicopter
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A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and these attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of VTOL aircraft cannot perform. English language nicknames for helicopter include chopper, copter, helo, heli, Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 being the first operational helicopter in 1936. Some helicopters reached limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built. Though most earlier designs used more than one rotor, it is the single main rotor with anti-torque tail rotor configuration that has become the most common helicopter configuration. Tandem rotor helicopters are also in use due to their greater payload capacity. Coaxial helicopters, tiltrotor aircraft, and compound helicopters are all flying today, quadcopter helicopters pioneered as early as 1907 in France, and other types of multicopter have been developed for specialized applications such as unmanned drones. The earliest references for vertical flight came from China, since around 400 BC, Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys. This bamboo-copter is spun by rolling a stick attached to a rotor, the spinning creates lift, and the toy flies when released. The 4th-century AD Daoist book Baopuzi by Ge Hong reportedly describes some of the ideas inherent to rotary wing aircraft, designs similar to the Chinese helicopter toy appeared in Renaissance paintings and other works. In the 18th and early 19th centuries Western scientists developed flying machines based on the Chinese toy. It was not until the early 1480s, when Leonardo da Vinci created a design for a machine that could be described as an aerial screw, that any recorded advancement was made towards vertical flight. His notes suggested that he built flying models, but there were no indications for any provision to stop the rotor from making the craft rotate. As scientific knowledge increased and became accepted, people continued to pursue the idea of vertical flight. In July 1754, Russian Mikhail Lomonosov had developed a small coaxial modeled after the Chinese top but powered by a spring device. It was powered by a spring, and was suggested as a method to lift meteorological instruments. Sir George Cayley, influenced by a fascination with the Chinese flying top, developed a model of feathers, similar to that of Launoy and Bienvenu. By the end of the century, he had progressed to using sheets of tin for rotor blades and his writings on his experiments and models would become influential on future aviation pioneers

33.
NH90
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The NHIndustries NH90 is a medium-sized, twin-engine, multi-role military helicopter. It was developed in response to NATO requirements for a helicopter which would also be capable of being operated in naval environments. The NH90 was developed and is manufactured by NHIndustries, a collaborative company, the first prototype conducted its maiden flight in December 1995, the type first entered operational service in 2007. As of January 2017, the NH90 has logged 127,000 flight hours in the forces of thirteen nations. The NH90 has the distinction of being the first production helicopter to feature entirely fly by wire flight controls, in early service, the NH90 has suffered several teething issues, which has in turn delayed active deployment of the type by some operators. In 1985, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom left the team in 1987. On 1 September 1992, NH Industries signed an NH90 design-and-development contract with NAHEMA and this agency represented the four participating nations, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. Portugal later joined the agency in June 2001, design work on the helicopter started in 1993. The first prototype, PT1, made the types first flight on 18 December 1995, the second prototype, PT2, first flew on 19 March 1997 and the third prototype, PT3, on 27 November 1998. On 12 December 2002, PT3 became the first helicopter to fly exclusively with fly-by-wire controls following the removal of mechanical back-up controls, the NH90 was developed into two main variants, the Tactical Transport Helicopter and the NATO Frigate Helicopter. These two main variants share about 75% commonality with each other, furthermore, many of the operators have requested specific configurations to their own helicopter fleets, thus each nations NH90 is effectively customized to the end-users requirements. During the development phrase of the programme in the 1990s, both technical and funding problems were experienced, in June 2000, the partner nations placed a large production order, worth US$8.6 billion, for a total of 366 helicopters. Additional orders have since followed from customers in Europe, Asia, by April 2013, a total of 529 NH90s of all variants were on order by various customers. The Nordic and Australian contracts stipulated production locally, Spain has a final assembly line at Albacete. The Marignane assembly line can reportedly complete up to 22 NH90s per year, in late 2006, the German Army, the first customer to receive production aircraft, accepted delivery of its first NH90 TTH. In April 2010, the Royal Netherlands Navy was the first customer to receive the navalised NH90 NFH variant. In June 2014, the announced that they had completed delivery of the 200th NH90, at that point. Between 2004 and 2016, the lead times for the NH90 had reduced from 18 months to 7.5 months

34.
Eurocopter Lynx
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The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to the development of both battlefield and naval variants, the Lynx has the distinction of being the worlds first fully aerobatic helicopter with the ability to perform loops and rolls. In 1986, a specially modified Lynx set the current Fédération Aéronautique Internationales official airspeed record for helicopters at 400.87 km/h, in addition to a wide number of land and naval variants of the Lynx, several major derivatives have been produced. The Westland 30 was produced as a utility helicopter, it did not become a commercial success. The Lynx remains in production by AgustaWestland, the successor to Westland Helicopters, the initial design was started in the mid-1960s as a replacement for the Westland Scout and Wasp, and a more advanced alternative to the UH-1 Iroquois. The design was to be powered by a pair of Bristol Siddeley BS.360 turboshaft engines, in October 1969, the French Army cancelled its requirement for the Lynx, thus development work of the dedicated armed attack variant was terminated early on. The first Lynx prototype took its flight on 21 March 1971. In 1972, a Lynx broke the speed record over 15 and 25 km by flying at 321.74 km/h. It also set a new 100 km closed circuit record shortly afterwards, in 1986, the former company demonstrator Lynx, registered G-LYNX, was specially modified with Gem 60 engines and British Experimental Rotor Programme rotor blades. At this speed, it had a ratio of 2. Deliveries of production began in 1977. An improved Lynx AH.1 with Gem 41-1 or Gem 42 engines, the AH.5 led to the Lynx AH.7, which added a new tail rotor derived from the Westland 30, a reinforced airframe, improved avionics and defensive aids. An improved Lynx for the Royal Navy, the Lynx HAS.3, had Gem 42-1 Mark 204 engines, a transmission, a new flotation system. The Lynx HAS.3 also received various updates in service. A similar upgrade to the French Lynx was known as the Lynx Mk.4, in September 1974, the British and Egyptian governments initiated talks to establish a new Egyptian helicopter manufacturer. A separate agreement was formalised with Rolls-Royce to license manufacture the Lynxs Gem engines at the Helwan facility, however, this plan was ultimately aborted due to a lack of funds that had resulted from the collapse of the Arab Organization for Industrialization. Both Army and Naval variants were proposed, however, the project was ended in 1987 due to insufficient orders being placed. Only one Army Lynx-3 prototype was built, a development of the Lynx AH.7 with the wheeled undercarriage of the Lynx-3 was marketed by Westland as the Battlefield Lynx in the late 1980s

35.
Eurocopter Panther
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The Eurocopter AS565 Panther is the military version of the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin medium-weight multi-purpose twin-engine helicopter. The Panther is used for a range of military roles, including combat assault, fire support, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, search and rescue. During the 1980s, French aerospace firm Aerospatiale decided to develop a military version of their popular Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin. The civil SA365 N variant of the Dauphin was used as the point for the project, the new rotorcraft was designed to perform utility, anti-tank, troop-transport. On 28 February 1984, the military variant prototype, designated as the AS365M and later named Panther, a total of three prototypes were built. In May 1986, Aerospatiale formally launched production of the AS365M, the initial production model, which was initially designated as the AS365 K, was shortly re-designated and became widely known as the AS565 Panther. In February 2016, Airbus Helicopters promised to relocate the production line for the AS565 Panther to India if it is selected by the Indian Navy for a proposed utility helicopter acquisition. The AS565 Panther is a twin-engine medium-sized multi-mission rotorcraft, the Panther is powered by a pair of Turbomeca Arriel turboshaft engines, which drives the rotorcrafts main rotor as well as the fenestron anti-torque tail rotor device. The flight profile of the Panther has been described as being easy to manoeuver, possessing generous g-force limitations, in the commando-transport configuration, the Panther may carry up to 10 fully armed soldiers on board at a time in addition to the two pilots flying the aircraft. Various avionics are present upon the Panther, some variants are fitted with the advanced human-machine interface glass cockpit. The design of the cockpit and avionics systems, such as the management system. The cockpit was designed with extra panel space to accommodate future upgrades. According to Airbus Helicopters, the Panther family has been qualified to operate from the decks of over 100 classes of NATO vessels. The compact size of the Panther has enabled the type to be operated from smaller ocean-going vessels such as corvettes, to aid in shipboard landings under rough sea conditions and high winds, some variants can be furnished with the hydraulic Harpoon deck-lock securing device. The Panther can be armed with different sets of munitions and armaments. Damage resistance is increased by the adoption of self-sealing fuel tanks, the French Naval Aviation took delivery of 15 Panthers between 1993 and 1998 for maritime operations. In the Aden, the Panther has been used for maritime patrol, surveillance and troop-transport missions, such as the transportation of strike teams. In May 2009, France announced a major upgrade program for the Aeronavales Panther fleet, focused on cockpit upgrades

36.
Eurocopter Dauphin
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It was originally developed and manufactured by French firm Aérospatiale, which was merged into the multinational Eurocopter company during the 1990s. Since entering production in 1975, the type has been in production for more than 40 years. The intended successor to the Dauphin is the Airbus Helicopters H160, deliveries of production models began later that decade. The initial production variant entered service under the designation of SA 365C. In 1982, the SA 356C Dauphin was succeeded by the more capable SA365 N, amongst several major design changes and improvements, the SA365 N featured more powerful engines, greater use of composite materials, a better cabin arrangement, and retractable landing gear. In January 1990, the type was formally redesignated as the AS365. The base Dauphin has been developed into several purpose-built variants. A variant of the Dauphin was specifically developed for and operated principally by the United States Coast Guard under the designation HH/MH-65 Dolphin. The AS365 Dauphin is a helicopter capable of travelling long ranges. Electrical power is provided by a pair of generators and a cadmium-nickel main battery. Various portions of the rotorcraft are made from composite materials, such as the blades that made of carbon fiber, other materials are used in portions of the fuselage. Various types and models of radar can be installed in the Dauphins nose.1 decibels below International Civil Aviation Organisation standards, the Dauphin can take off under a full load from sea level under Category A conditions. The main cabin area is designed to be reconfigurable, a feature which is promoted to emergency service and search. In a regular passenger transport layout, the cabin can accommodate up to 12 passengers in addition to the two pilots, up to seven passengers can be accommodated in a VIP layout. Access to the cabin is via sliding doors on either side of the helicopter. By 1980, a total of 265 AS360/361/365 Dauphins had been delivered, amongst the biggest early customers for the type was Saudi Arabia, which ordered 24 Dauphins, and Angola, with an order for 17 Dauphins. In February 1991, it was announced that the 500th Dauphin had been delivered to Bond Helicopters, by 1991, the Dauphin was being operated by 138 customers across 44 nations. In December 2006, Eurocopter president Fabrice Brégier stated that between 30 and 40 Dauphins were being delivered each year, prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics, five AS 356N3 Dauphins were procured for the Hellenic Coast Guard for harbor surveillance purposes

37.
Patrol aircraft
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France, Italy and Austria-Hungary used large numbers of smaller patrol aircraft for the Mediterranean, Adriatic and other coastal areas while the Germans and British fought over the North Sea. A number of specialized patrol balloons were built, particularly by the British, the success of long range patrol aircraft led to the development of fighters specifically designed to intercept them, such as the Hansa-Brandenburg W.29. Blimps were widely used by the U. S. Navy, especially in the warmer and calmer latitudes of the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and later the Azores. In the Pacific, the Catalina was gradually superseded by the longer-ranged Martin PBM Mariner flying boat, in the decades following World War II, the patrol duties were partially taken over by aircraft derived from civilian airliners. These had range and performance factors better than most of the wartime bombers, the latest jet-powered bombers of the 1950s did not have the endurance needed for long, overwater patrolling, and they did not have the low loitering speeds necessary for antisubmarine operations. The RAF also flew a derivative of the Avro Lancaster bomber – the Avro Shackleton –, and then replaced it with the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod. The Canadian version is called the CP-140 Aurora, in addition to their ASW and SAR capabilities, most P-3Cs have been modified to carry Harpoon missiles and Maverick s for attacking surface ships if the need ever arose. American P-3s were formerly armed with the Lulu nuclear depth charge for ASW, the Soviet Union developed the Ilyushin Il-38 from a civilian airliner, and the Royal Canadian Air Force did likewise, deriving the Canadair CP-107 Argus from a British airliner. Then, as mentioned above, those were replaced by the CP-140 Aurora, the French Navy developed the Breguet Atlantic following a Request for Proposal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Some of these were produced for some other NATO members that were not flying the P-3 or the CP-140. Japan developed an aircraft as well, the Shin Meiwa PS-1 flying boat. The main threat to NATO maritime supremacy throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and these were countered by the NATO fleets, the NATO patrol planes mentioned above, and by sophisticated underwater listening systems. S. Navy and Canadian ones from Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland, British ones from Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Norwegian, Dutch, and German ones from their home countries. Since the end of the Cold War the threat of a submarine attack is a remote one. The earliest patrol aircraft carried bombs and machine guns, between the wars the British experimented with equipping their patrol aircraft with the COW37 mm gun. During World War II, depth charges that could be set to detonate at specific depths, equipping submarines with radar-warning devices and the snorkel made them harder to find. Then the small escort carriers of WW II became available to cover the oceans. Maritime patrol aircraft are fitted with a wide range of sensors

38.
Atlantique 2
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The Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic is a long-range maritime patrol aircraft designed and manufactured by Breguet Aviation. Introduced to service in 1965, it has operated by several NATO countries, commonly performing maritime roles such as reconnaissance. The Atlantic is also capable of carrying air-to-ground munitions to perform ground-attack missions, an updated version, the Atlantique 2 or ATL2, was produced by Dassault Aviation for the French Navy in the 1980s. Other operators of the Atlantic have included the German Navy, the Italian Air Force, the Pakistan Navy, a multinational consortium, Société dÉtude et de Construction de Breguet Atlantic was set up to develop and build the Atlantic. An initial order for 60 Atlantics –40 for France and 20 for Germany – was placed in 1963, with starting in 1965. The production line had shut down by the time the Netherlands placed an order for nine Atlantics, aircraft from this second production batch were delivered from 1972 to 1974. In 1978, the French Government authorised development of a new, updated version of the Atlantic, the ability to carry Exocet missiles was also added. Two prototype Atlantique 2s were produced by converting existing Atlantics, the first of these made its flight on 8 May 1981. Production of the Atlantique 2 was authorised on 24 May 1984, deliveries started in 1989 with 28 eventually built, from an original requirement for 42. By 2012, the Atlantique 2 had been rebranded as the ATL2, in 2012,18 French Atlantiques were undergoing a series of upgrades to increase the types effectiveness in two stages, Phase I addressing obsolescence issues and Phase II adding new capabilities. Also in 2012, a project was conducted to integrate the MU90 Impact torpedo. Aircraft that received these upgrades shall have a service life as well. The Atlantique 3 would have featured various off-the-shelf avionics upgrades, including the adoption of a glass cockpit. The use of uprated Allison AE2100H turboprop engines to drive new Dowty-built six-bladed composite propellers reportedly would have increased power by nearly 10%, in late 1996, Dassault intended to offer the Atlantique 3 to Germany, Italy, and France. By 2005, Dassault had abandoned marketing efforts on the Atlantique 3, a radar scanner is housed in a retractable underfuselage radome, while a magnetic anomaly detector is housed in a tail boom. It is powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprop engines, an all-aluminium structure is used throughout the Atlantics airframe, corrosion is alleged to be a considerable problem due to environmental factors imposed by the maritime environment. The Atlantic has been designed for its purpose, instead of refitting or modifying existing designs, though the primary mission of the Atlantic is anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, its secondary roles include search and rescue, mine laying and detection and long-range maritime surveillance. The Atlantic can carry either eight guided ASW torpedoes such as Mk 46 Torpedo, or 12 depth charges, German Atlantics usually carried Mk 46s only and flew unarmed during the last years of their service

39.
Falcon 50
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The Dassault Falcon 50 is a French-built super mid-sized, long-range corporate jet, featuring a three jet engine layout with an S-duct central engine. It has the same fuselage cross-section and similar capacity as the earlier Falcon 20 twinjet but is a new design that is area ruled. The first prototype flew on 7 November 1976, with French airworthiness certification on 27 February 1979, the Falcon 50EX features improved engines and other enhancements to give further range improvements to an already long-legged jet. It remains a popular corporate jet for its long-range, luxury. The Falcon 50EX designation applies to serial numbers 251, and 253–352, the last Falcon 50EX was built in late 2007 and delivered in early 2008. Successors to the Falcon 50 are the Falcon 7X and the Falcon 900 featuring a larger fuselage, Dassault announced in January 2008 what is essentially a replacement aircraft for the Falcon 50, codenamed the SMS. The basic design process, including engine selection was supposed to be completed by early 2009, however, in a June 2009 press conference, CEO Charles Edelstenne said that all design choices had been reopened and the goal was extended to the end of the year. Dassault and Aviation Partners Inc. have announced that High Mach blended winglets were being developed for the Falcon 50 as a retrofit kit. Iraqi Intelligence Service operated a Falcon 50 in VIP configuration and offered to install cameras in it. It would appear to be one of the many airliners flying along local commercial corridors, heading to Mumbai airport in India, the aircraft passed about 30 kilometers west of Sirri island. This was close enough for the crew to take using a handheld camera with a powerful optical zoom. They repeated the procedure on the way back to Jordan the next day. The photographs facilitated an attack on the oil terminal on Sirri island with Mirage aircraft. The Iraqi Air Forces Mirage F1EQ-5 was equipped with Exocet missiles, an aircraft that could carry two Exocet missiles and that would not draw attention to itself was desired, the Falcon 50 being considered suitable. The Thales Group was asked to modify the aircraft with the radar and weapons system as the Mirage F1EQ-5. Early on 17 May 1987 a pilot from No.81 Squadron took off on the first attack mission from Wahda Air Base,45 km south-west of Basra, at the edge of the Iraqi-declared exclusion zone north of Bahrain a medium-sized naval vessel was identified. The pilot determined that it was about to enter the exclusion zone, the Iraqi government apologized and claimed that “The pilot mistook Stark for an Iranian tanker”. The American government accepted the apology and assigned blame to Iran instead, American intelligence was convinced it was a Mirage F1 that had attacked

40.
Dassault Falcon 20
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The Dassault Falcon 20 is a French business jet. It was the first of a family of business jets built by Dassault Aviation, marcel Dassault gave the go-ahead for production of an eight- or ten-seat executive jet or military liaison aircraft the Dassault-Breguet Mystère 20 in December 1961. The Mystère 20 was a monoplane with two rear-mounted Pratt & Whitney JT12A-8 engines. The prototype, registered F-WLKB, first flew on 4 May 1963 at Bordeaux-Merignac, under the influence of Pan American the aircraft was re-engined with two General Electric CF700 engines and some dimensions were increased. Pan American signed a contract to distribute the Mystère 20 in the western hemisphere, the re-engined aircraft first flew on 10 July 1964. The first production aircraft flew on 1 January 1965 and both French and American certification was awarded in June 1965. On 10 June 1965, Jacqueline Auriol set the world record speed in the first Mystère 20 prototype, F-WLKB. This prototype was used in the 1966 comedy How to Steal a Million, starring Audrey Hepburn, deliveries began to the Pan American outfitting facility at Burbank Airport, California. In 1966 the company redesignated the American-delivered aircraft as the Fan Jet Falcon, military orders from Australia and Canada were received. All non-American aircraft were fitted out before delivery at Bordeaux-Merignac, in 1967 Pan American Business Jets Division, a business unit of Pan American World Airways, increased their firm orders to 160 aircraft. Some Falcon 20s powered by General Electric CF700 engines were re-engined with Garrett TFE731 engines under AMD-BA Service Bulletin No.731 and these aircraft were redesignated with a -5 after the model number. Volpar, Inc. worked on a program to reengine Falcon 20s with the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW305 engines and this modification is commonly used to modify Falcon 20s to operate as special mission aircraft with underwing stores. The improved Falcon 200 featured more advanced jet engines and other improvements to increase range, capacity. The aircraft proved to be so popular that production did not end until 1988, the Falcon 20G, HU-25 and Falcon 200 were powered by Garrett ATF3 engines. A total of 473 Falcon 20s and 35 Falcon 200s were built by the production ended in 1988. In 2012, a Falcon 20 became the first civil jet to fly on 100% biofuel when it performed a test flight for Canadas National Research Council. In 2013, the FAA modified 14 CFR part 91 rules to prohibit the operation of jets weighing 75,000 pounds or less that were not Stage 3 noise compliant after 31 December 2015, the Falcon 20 was listed explicitly in Federal Register 78 FR39576. 14 CFR §91.883 Special flight authorizations for jet airplanes weighing 75,000 pounds or less - lists special flight authorizations that may be granted for operation after 31 December 2015

41.
Trainer (aircraft)
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A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. Civilian pilots are trained in a light aircraft, with two or more seats to allow for a student and instructor. The aircraft may be modified to withstand the conditions imposed by training flights. The two seating configurations for trainer aircraft are, pilot and instructor side by side, or in tandem, usually with the pilot in front, the tandem configuration has the advantage of being closer to the normal working environment that a fast jet pilot is likely to encounter. It is now the norm for pilots to begin their training in an aircraft with side by side seating. This, however, has not always been the case, given the expense of military pilot training, air forces typically conduct training in phases to eliminate unsuitable candidates. The cost to air forces that do not follow a graduated training regimen is not just monetary. There are two areas for instruction, flight training and operational training. In flight training a candidate seeks to develop their flying skills, in operational training the candidate learns to use his or her flying skills through simulated combat, attack and fighter techniques. Typically, contemporary military pilots learn initial flying skills in an aircraft not too dissimilar from civilian training aircraft. In this phase candidates are screened for mental and physical attributes. Aircraft used for this include the Slingsby Firefly, as at one time used by the United States Air Force Academy. The U. S. replaced the Firefly and the Enhanced Flight Screen Program with the Diamond DA20, at the end of this stage, pilot trainees are assessed as to where their attributes lie, as fast jet, multi-engine or rotary wing pilots. Those who are judged unsuitable for a commission, but show other attributes, may be offered the chance to qualify as navigators. Smaller and more financially restricted air forces may use ultra-light aircraft, gliders, after the ab-inito phase a candidate may progress to basic, or primary, trainers. These are usually turboprop trainers, like the Pilatus PC-9 and Embraer Tucano, prior to the availability of high performance turboprops, basic training was conducted with jet aircraft such as the BAC Jet Provost, T-37 Tweet, and Fouga Magister. Those candidates who are not suitable to continue training as fast jet pilots may be offered flying commissions, examples of such jet trainer aircraft include the supersonic T-38 Talon, the BAE Hawk, the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet, the Aero L-39 and the Yakovlev Yak-130. Effective combat aircraft are a function now electronics as much as, if not more so than and it is at this stage that a pilot begins to learn to operate radar systems and electronics

42.
Mudry CAP 10
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The Mudry CAP10 is a two-seat training aerobatic aircraft first built in 1970 and still in production in 2007. The plane was developed from the Piel Super Emeraude and was born as the CP100, the name changed to CAP10, CAP for Constructions Aéronautiques Parisiennes. The CAP10 was manufactured by Mudry in Bernay, France, following the bankruptcy of Apex in 2008, rights to produce spares were awarded to DynAviation. After the bankruptcy of DynAero in 2012, manufacture of spares was taken over by CEAPR in Darois, the prototype C. P.100 was first flown in August 1968 and was followed by the production variants, the CAP10 and CAP 10B which had revised tail surfaces. The CAP10 is a cantilever monoplane of wooden construction. The engine is a 180 hp Lycoming AEIO-360 fuel injection engine, 300+ aircraft were built, and in 2007 the CAP 10C is still in production. The CAP10 is one of the most successful aerobatic training aircraft in the world, about 200 aircraft are still flying in the late 2000s and nearly two generations of aerobatic champions made their classes with it. In the late 70s the CAP10 was developed to the single family of the CAP20. In the 1980s, a far derivative was the most successful family of the Cap 23x competition single seaters and this modification has been developed by the French Company Air-Menuiserie in 2013 and allows the CAP 10B/K to recover its flight envelop limitations. France French Air Force French Navy Morocco Used to equip Equipe Voltige aerobatic display team, more than 200 were built, mostly for aero-clubs all around the world. A huge number of European champions have started aerobatics on a Cap 10

France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territ

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One of the Lascaux paintings: a horse – Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC

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Flag

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The Maison Carrée was a temple of the Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the Roman Empire.

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With Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the Frankish monarchy, elective and secular until then, became hereditary and of divine right.

French Naval Aviation
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French Naval Aviation is the naval air arm of the French Navy. Born as a fusion of carrier squadrons and naval air force. The headquarters is under command of an admiral in Toulon naval base, the French Naval Aviation has a strength of around 6,800 military and civilian personnel. They operate from four airbases in Metropolitan France and several d

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Aéronavale French Naval Aviation

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Grumman E-2 Hawkeye

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Dassault Rafale

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Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard

FORFUSCO
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The Fusiliers Marins and Commandos Marine units are under command of the Force maritime des fusiliers marins et commandos in Lorient. It is headed by an officer with the title of Admiral commandant Les fusiliers marins et commandos. A2, 500-man strong force, the FORFUSCO is the organic force of the French Navy. Groups and companies of marines are d

Marseille Marine Fire Battalion
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The Marseille Naval Fire Battalion, is the fire and rescue service for the city of Marseille. The battalion is a branch of the French Navy, and consists of military personnel, like the Paris Fire Brigade. Nearly half of all candidates fail the battalions rigorous training program, Fire Suppression on land and at sea Emergency Ambulance Utility Safe

Maritime Gendarmerie
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The Maritime Gendarmerie is a component of the French National Gendarmerie under operational control of the chief of staff of the French Navy. It employs 1,100 personnel and operates around thirty patrol boats, like their land-based colleagues the Gendarmes Maritime are military personnel carry out policing operations in addition to their primary r

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Géranium -class

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National Gendarmerie

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Vedette-class

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Pétulante -class

Brest Arsenal
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The Brest Arsenal is a collection of naval and military buildings located on the banks of the river Penfeld, in Brest, France. It is located at 48°23′12″N 4°29′48″W, 1631-1635 Beginning of the foundations of the port infrastructure. 1674 Appearance of the Powder Magazines, Cordellerie and Military Hospital,1683 Creation of the Troulan dock. 1746 Cr

1.
The helicopter-carrier Jeanne d'Arc docked on the left bank of the Penfeld, downstream of the pont de l’Harteloire. The high-tides are too low for ships to be able to dock nearer to the quays, which are still all along the river. In the background, the église Saint-Louis, to the right, the viaduct of the “grue revolver”, a former crane that looked like a pistol.

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Schematic plan of the Arsenal de Brest

Military port of Toulon
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The military port of Toulon is the principal base of the French Navy, sited in the city of Toulon. It holds most of Frances force daction navale, comprising the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle as well as its attack submarines. The word rade comes from the old English term Road, a place near shore, not so enclosed as a harbour. The Rade of Toulon

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The Toulon arsenal

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General view of the roadstead of Toulon.

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The Rade of Toulon seen from Saint-Mandrier-sur-Mer

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The aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle in the Rade of Toulon

Cherbourg
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Cherbourg-Octeville is a city and former commune situated at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It is a subprefecture of its department, and was formed when the commune of Cherbourg absorbed Octeville on 28 February 2000. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Cherbourg-en-C

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An aerial view of the Cherbourg agglomeration in May 2006

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A map of the Cotentin peninsula, with Cherbourg to the north

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The Montagne du Roule seen from the commercial harbour.

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The Normandie Express catamaran ferry at Cherbourg

Lorient
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Lorient is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in area of Lorient are attested by the presence of megalithic architecture, ruins of Roman roads confirm Gallo-Roman presence. In 1664, Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded the French East Indies Company, in June 1666, a

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Aerial view of the harbour of Lorient

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Lorient in the 18th century

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L'Enclos at the end of the 18th century

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The Harbor at Lorient, 1869 painting by Berthe Morisot.

Overseas departments and territories of France
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Overseas France consists of all the French-administered territories outside of the European continent. Their citizens have French nationality and vote for the president of France and they have the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament. From a legal and administrative standpoint, overseas regions are different from overseas collectiv

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Gustavia in Saint Barthélemy

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Flag

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A street in Saint-Pierre, capital of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

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Route des Tamarins motorway near Saint-Paul, Réunion

Fort Saint Louis (Martinique)
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Fort Saint Louis is a seaside fortress in Fort-de-France, Martinique. The present-day fort has evolved from earlier strongholds that were erected on the site as early as 1638, the modern-day Fort Saint Louis is both an active naval base and a listed historic site of France. There are daily tours of the fort, though the portion that is still a base

Port des Galets
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Le Port is a commune in the French overseas department of Réunion. It is located at the extreme northwest corner of the island of Réunion, Le Port had a population of 36,952. It is the harbour city of the island. Le Port is twinned with, Durban, South Africa Toamasina, Madagascar Port Louis, Mauritius Quelimane, also, the newspaper of the party, Te

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Harbor in Le Port

Dzaoudzi
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Dzaoudzi is a commune in the French overseas department of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean. The commune of Dzaoudzi, made up of the towns of Dzaoudzi. It was previously the capital of Mayotte, but the capital was relocated in 1977 to Mamoudzou, on the island of Grande-Terre, the Foreign Legion Detachment in Mayotte has been based in Dzaoudzi since 197

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Dzaoudzi harbour

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The ferry between Dzaoudzi and Mamoudzou

Dakar
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Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city in the Old World as well as on the African mainland. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, the area around Dakar was settled in the 15th century. The Portuguese established a presence on the i

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Place de l'Indépendance

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City of Dakar, divided into 19 communes d'arrondissement

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A public water well, 1899.

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Dakar in 1850.

Djibouti
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Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, the remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east. Djibouti occupies an area of just 23,200 km2. In antiquity, the territory was part of the Land of Pu

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Geometric design pottery found in Asa Koma.

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Flag

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French Somaliland in 1922.

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Aerial view of Djibouti City, the capital of Djibouti.

Abu Dhabi
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Abu Dhabi is the capital and the second most populous city of the United Arab Emirates, and also capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the UAEs seven emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the western coast. The city proper had a population of 1.5 million in 2014, Abu Dhabi houses federal gove

Current French Navy ships
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This is a list of active French Navy ships as of April 2016. The French Navy consists of the 86 vessel strong Force daction navale, primary assets include 1 aircraft carrier,3 amphibious assault ships,4 air-defence destroyers,8 anti-submarine destroyers,5 general-purpose frigates, and 6 surveillance frigates. The submarine force consists of 6 attac

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Detail of Forbin, a modern frigate of the French Navy. The faceted appearance reduces radar cross-section for stealth.

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Naval ensign of France

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Triomphant class

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Rubis class

Sino-French War
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The Sino-French War, also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 through April 1885, to decide whether France would supplant Chinas control of Tonkin. Although the Chinese armies performed better than in other nineteenth-century wars and the war ended with French defeat on land, France began its colo

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Operations of the Sino-French war (1884–85)

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Commandant Henri Rivière (1827–83)

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Rivière attempts to rescue a bogged French cannon during the Battle of Paper Bridge. (19 May 1883)

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Admiral Anatole-Amédée-Prosper Courbet. (1827–85)

French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and

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The "arrêt" signs (French for "stop") are used in Canada while the international stop, which is also a valid French word, is used in France as well as other French-speaking countries and regions.

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Regions where French is the main language

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Town sign in Standard Arabic and French at the entrance of Rechmaya in Lebanon.

World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts i

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Clockwise from the top: The aftermath of shelling during the Battle of the Somme, Mark V tanks cross the Hindenburg Line, HMS Irresistible sinks after hitting a mine in the Dardanelles, a British Vickers machine gun crew wears gas masks during the Battle of the Somme, Albatros D.III fighters of Jagdstaffel 11

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Sarajevo citizens reading a poster with the proclamation of the Austrian annexation in 1908.

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This picture is usually associated with the arrest of Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.

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Serbian Army Blériot XI "Oluj", 1915.

World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directl

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Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the Battle of Wanjialing, Australian 25-pounder guns during the First Battle of El Alamein, German Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the Lingayen Gulf, Wilhelm Keitel signing the German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad

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The League of Nations assembly, held in Geneva, Switzerland, 1930

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Adolf Hitler at a German National Socialist political rally in Weimar, October 1930

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Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the Second Italo-Abyssinian War

Indochina War
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The First Indochina War began in French Indochina on 19 December 1946 and lasted until 1 August 1954. Fighting between French forces and their Viet Minh opponents in the South dated from September 1945, Japanese forces located south of that line surrendered to him and those to the north surrendered to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. In September 194

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A French Foreign Legion unit patrols in a communist-controlled area.

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French Indochina (1913)

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Japanese troops lay down their arms to British troops in a ceremony in Saigon 1945

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Commando of the C.L.I. (Corps Léger d'Intervention) in Indochina after the surrender of Japan.

Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World W

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Donald Rumsfeld, as U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, meets Saddam Hussein on 19–20 December 1983.

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Kuwait Army M-84 main battle tanks.

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Iraqi Army T-72 M main battle tanks. The T-72M tank was a common Iraqi battle tank used in the Gulf War.

Kosovo War
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The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 5 March 1998 until 11 June 1999. After attempts at a diplomatic solution failed, NATO intervened, justifying the campaign in Kosovo as a humanitarian war and this precipitated a mass expulsion of Kosovar Albanians as the Yugoslav forces continued to fight during the aerial bombardment

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Clockwise from top-left: Yugoslav general staff headquarters damaged by NATO air strikes; a Yugo buried under rubble caused by NATO air strikes; memorial to local KLA commanders; a USAF F-15E taking off from Aviano Air Base

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Equipment of 72nd Special Brigade Yugoslav Army in the 1999 Kosovo War.

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A Tomahawk cruise missile launches from the aft missile deck of USS Gonzalez on March 31, 1999

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A U.S. F-117 Nighthawk taxis to the runway before taking off from Aviano Air Base, Italy, on March 24, 1999

War on Terror
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The War on Terror, also known as the Global War on Terrorism, is a metaphor of war referring to the international military campaign that started after the September 11th attacks on the United States. U. S. President George W. Bush first used the term War on Terror on 20 September 2001 and it was originally used with a particular focus on countries

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Clockwise from top left: Aftermath of the 11 September attacks; American infantry in Afghanistan; an American soldier and Afghan interpreter in Zabul Province, Afghanistan; explosion of an Iraqi car bomb in Baghdad.

Ranks in the French Navy
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The rank insignia of the French Navy are worn on shoulder straps of shirts and white jackets, and on sleeves for navy jackets and mantels. Until 2005, only commissioned officers had an anchor on their insignia, the two highest ranks, vice-amiral descadre and amiral, are functions, rather than ranks. They are assumed by officers ranking vice-amiral,

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Peintre de la Marine

Attack aircraft
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This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft, Strike fighters, which have effectively replaced the fighter-bomber and light bomber concepts, also differ little from the broad c

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An A-10 Thunderbolt II flies past the effects of an AGM-65 Maverick it fired during a close air support training exercise

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A-6 Intruder in the front, A-7 Corsair in the background, 1970

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RAF Harrier GR9 in flight, 2008

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Junkers J.I featuring its armored "bathtub".

Rafale
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The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. The Rafale is referred to as an aircraft by Dassault. In the late 1970s, the French Air Force and Navy were seeking to replace, in order to reduce development costs and boost prospective sales, France entered into an a

Electronic warfare
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Electronic warfare is any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack of an enemy, or impede enemy assaults via the spectrum. The purpose of warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly unimpeded access to. EW can be applied from air, sea, land, and space by ma

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RAF Menwith Hill, a large ECHELON site in the United Kingdom, and part of the UK-USA Security Agreement

E-2 Hawkeye
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The Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning aircraft. The fourth major version of the Hawkeye is the E-2D, which first flew in 2007, the E-2 was the first aircraft designed specifically for its role, as opposed to a modification of an existing airframe, such as the Boeing E-3 Sentry.

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E-2 Hawkeye

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E-2A

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E-2C

Fighter aircraft
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A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dual-purpos

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A fly by of an F-22 Raptor, a pair of F-86 Sabres, and a P-38 Lightning during Heritage Flight training at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base

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Landing on HMS Furious in a Sopwith Pup scout

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Hawker Sea Hurricanes in formation

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MiG-17 underside

Helicopter
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A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and these attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of VTOL aircraft cannot perform. English la

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A police department Bell 206 helicopter

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A decorated Japanese taketombo bamboo-copter

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Leonardo's "aerial screw"

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Prototype created by M. Lomonosov, 1754

NH90
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The NHIndustries NH90 is a medium-sized, twin-engine, multi-role military helicopter. It was developed in response to NATO requirements for a helicopter which would also be capable of being operated in naval environments. The NH90 was developed and is manufactured by NHIndustries, a collaborative company, the first prototype conducted its maiden fl

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NH90

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Cockpit of an NH90 during a public display

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The lowered rear cargo ramp of a German Army NH90

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Italian Navy NH90 NFH in flight, 2012

Eurocopter Lynx
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The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to the development of both battlefield and naval variants, the Lynx has the distinction of being the worlds first fully aer

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WG-13 Lynx / Super Lynx

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Lynx XX153, which broke the helicopter speed record in 1972, preserved on public display

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A Royal Navy Lynx HMA.8 of the Lynx Operational Evaluation Unit

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Cockpit of a German Navy Lynx

Eurocopter Panther
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The Eurocopter AS565 Panther is the military version of the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin medium-weight multi-purpose twin-engine helicopter. The Panther is used for a range of military roles, including combat assault, fire support, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, search and rescue. During the 1980s, French aerospace firm Aerospatiale deci

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AS565 Panther

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A Mexican marine fast ropes onto the flight deck of Frankfurt Am Main during a simulated multi-national maritime operation

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The Panther helicopter of Cassard transferring a light load to Meuse

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French Navy SA 365 F

Eurocopter Dauphin
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It was originally developed and manufactured by French firm Aérospatiale, which was merged into the multinational Eurocopter company during the 1990s. Since entering production in 1975, the type has been in production for more than 40 years. The intended successor to the Dauphin is the Airbus Helicopters H160, deliveries of production models began

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SA 365 Dauphin 2 AS365 Dauphin

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Eurocopter AS365 N2 cockpit

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French Navy AS365 F Dauphin rescue helicopter on the deck of the Charles De Gaulle carrier, June 2004

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The Canadian Forces Bell CH-146 Griffon is a typical utility helicopter

Patrol aircraft
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France, Italy and Austria-Hungary used large numbers of smaller patrol aircraft for the Mediterranean, Adriatic and other coastal areas while the Germans and British fought over the North Sea. A number of specialized patrol balloons were built, particularly by the British, the success of long range patrol aircraft led to the development of fighters

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Boeing P-8 Poseidon and Kawasaki P-1 in 2014

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A Boeing P-8 Poseidon and a Lockheed P-3 Orion over Naval Air Station Patuxent River

Atlantique 2
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The Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic is a long-range maritime patrol aircraft designed and manufactured by Breguet Aviation. Introduced to service in 1965, it has operated by several NATO countries, commonly performing maritime roles such as reconnaissance. The Atlantic is also capable of carrying air-to-ground munitions to perform ground-attack missions,

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Br.1150 Atlantic Atlantique 2

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Cockpit of an Atlantic simulator

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Atlantic in flight, 2006

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Atlantique flying overhead, 2006

Falcon 50
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The Dassault Falcon 50 is a French-built super mid-sized, long-range corporate jet, featuring a three jet engine layout with an S-duct central engine. It has the same fuselage cross-section and similar capacity as the earlier Falcon 20 twinjet but is a new design that is area ruled. The first prototype flew on 7 November 1976, with French airworthi

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Falcon 50

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Falcon 50 of the Armee de l'Air

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Iran's government Falcon 50 landing on Tehran - Mehrabad Airport

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Yugoslav Falcon 50 in 1984, later used by Serbian Government.

Dassault Falcon 20
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The Dassault Falcon 20 is a French business jet. It was the first of a family of business jets built by Dassault Aviation, marcel Dassault gave the go-ahead for production of an eight- or ten-seat executive jet or military liaison aircraft the Dassault-Breguet Mystère 20 in December 1961. The Mystère 20 was a monoplane with two rear-mounted Pratt &

Trainer (aircraft)
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A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. Civilian pilots are trained in a light aircraft, with two or more seats to allow for a student and instructor. The aircraft may be modified to withstand the conditions imposed by training flights. The two seating configurations for trainer a

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Slingsby T-67 Firefly of the UK Defence Elementary Flying Training School, used for training army and navy pilots

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Cockpit of the Aermacchi SF.260. Student pilot or PIC in the right-hand seat, where all primary flight instrument are.

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HAL HJT-36 jet trainer that is set to replace the HAL Kiran aircraft of the Indian Air Force, together with the HAL Tejas.

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Polish 3Xtrim 3X55 Trener ultralight trainer

Mudry CAP 10
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The Mudry CAP10 is a two-seat training aerobatic aircraft first built in 1970 and still in production in 2007. The plane was developed from the Piel Super Emeraude and was born as the CP100, the name changed to CAP10, CAP for Constructions Aéronautiques Parisiennes. The CAP10 was manufactured by Mudry in Bernay, France, following the bankruptcy of

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USS George Washington (SSBN-598) –the lead ship of US Navy 's first class of Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines (SSBN). George Washington was the first operational nuclear-powered multi-missile strategic deterrence asset fielded by any navy.

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The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The body of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

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A late Roman statue depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in Venice

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Coin of Theodoric

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Mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna, bodyguards, and courtiers

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Circa the 6th century BCE: In ancient times the Mediterranean provided sources of food and local commerce and direct routes for trade and communications, colonisation, and war. Numerous cities and colonies were situated at its shores or within the basin: Greek (red) and Phoenician (yellow) colonies in antiquity; and other cities (grey), including the provincial "Rom".

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Map of the Mediterranean Sea

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With its highly indented coastline and large number of islands, Greece has the longest Mediterranean coastline.

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The Battle of Lepanto, 1571, ended in victory for the European Holy League against the Ottoman Turks.

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The piece of chain running diagonally up and right from the bottom-left of this picture to the upper of the two yards is the fore-lower-topsail sheet. Some of the lines on Prince William 's larger sails are made of chain to handle the heavy loads while remaining flexible enough to pass through the various blocks on their route to the deck.

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Model of the Louis le Grand at the Musée de la Marine, Paris. No actual ship ever bore the name, and the ship features mismatched characteristics that make it unlikely to represent any ship in existence. It was in all likelihood the model of a generic ship of the line, used for the instruction of the children of the high nobility in maritime affairs.

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In July 1453, a French army crushed its English opponents at the Battle of Castillon, the last major engagement of the Hundred Years War. The decisive victory at Castillon showcased the power of artillery against charging masses of infantry and allowed the French to capture Bordeaux a few months later. The English subsequently lost their major remaining possessions on the European continent.

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Animated map of French territory in continental Europe over time. After centuries of warfare and diplomacy, France has the largest territory of any nation in Western Europe.

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Brennus and the sack of Rome as imagined in the 19th century

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A section of the Bayeux Tapestry chronicling the Norman victory at Hastings.